


in our hearts some ancient song

by whimsicalimages



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555 Lives, Canon-Typical Violence, Cody is Going Through It, Eventual Happy Ending, Fix-It, M/M, Mind Control, Order 66, POV Alternating, Panic Attacks, Politics, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:13:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 40,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25582654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsicalimages/pseuds/whimsicalimages
Summary: Fives stares at Cody’s helmet, uncomprehending, before turning back to look at Cody. “I hope I don’t throw up in your bucket,vod,” he says.“Just put it on, and let’s go,” Cody says.(Or: Cody finds Fives first. There are galactic consequences.)
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 303
Kudos: 1933
Collections: Codywan Week





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to finish this for the Fix-It Day 2 prompt for [Codywan Week,](https://codywanweek.tumblr.com) but then it became much longer than anticipated, and so will ultimately fill Fix-It, H/C, Fluff, and (sort of, very obliquely) Fantasy, but not in that order. This part, unfortunately for you all, is a lot of hurt and not a lot of comfort, but I can promise the rest is coming! This is a fix-it, I swear! Please believe me… 
> 
> Title is from [“Seven Rules”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGlZk52xYBU) by Metric. As always, my sincerest gratitude to [J](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tumblingintowells) and [M](https://productivity-is-irrelevant.tumblr.com) for bearing with my insanity. 
> 
> Mando'a translations are available at the end of each chapter for mobile and hovertext for desktop.

Food and some sort of hat. That karking longneck scientist—she’d drugged him with something, on the shuttle. It’s making it hard to think straight. He’s got the rest of his armor, but not his helmet. There isn’t much he can do about the drug, but he needs food. Maybe a bottle of water. He needs to find General Skywalker—or Rex. Rex would know what to do. He just hopes the drug she injected him with wasn’t lethal. He needs food, he can’t remember when he ate whatever he last ate. He needs to stop thinking. Echo had always liked the little cakes from the omnipresent vending machines on the lower levels.

Fives spots one that looks old enough not to have a traceable credit log, and punches in the right sequence in a haze.

The purple kind had been Echo’s favorite. He misses him like a karking limb. He feels like his brain is melting out of his ears. He’s never gotten migraines, though he knows Cody gets bad ones. This must be what it’s like.

The machine beeps an acceptance, pushing out the cake slowly enough that Fives closes his eyes and leans his forehead against the glass of the display.

The Chancellor can mind-control them to kill their Jedi, and Fives is standing around and waiting for his purple cake to drop out of a vending machine. It feels he’s in one of the absurdist plays that Dogma used to force the 501st to watch.

There are still too many people around him. He feels exposed. His best bet is to find someone, anyone familiar in 79’s, but his tattoo renders him too recognizable to go traipsing around Coruscant, where there are holocams everywhere. He’ll have to get in a cab, if he’s lucky, or go down a few levels to where there are fewer cameras and make his way on foot.

He needs to move very carefully. He’s an ARC, he’s trained for some bad karking situations. Nothing this bad, but bad enough, maybe. Hopefully. He just has to survive long enough to warn Rex. Or to find a medic he can trust, which is basically either Kix or Flask.

A cab is pulling over to let out passengers. He may as well take the opportunity to get as far away from the Senate district as he can.

He turns from the vending machine, cake in hand, when someone in armor pulls him backwards into an alley, and he’s immediately struggling.

He curses the Kaminoans for all they’re worth—this karking drug has his reaction time the slowest it’s been since before Rishi. He may not be operating at full strength, but he’s damn well going to put up a fight. He’s pretty sure he can take one of Fox’s people. Maybe not Fox himself, but he’s not an ARC for nothing.

But the person holding him isn’t trying to fight, only holding him pinned. He could swear he knows that hold—but it’s out of reach. His head is too foggy, and he keeps lashing out, hating the way his limbs are already growing weaker.

“Fives, stop! It’s me,” a brother’s voice says. “It’s Cody.”

He stills. “Cody,” he says. “Uh. Sir.”

Cody huffs what could be a laugh. “If I let you up, will you make a run for it? The whole karking planet is looking for you, they’re saying you tried to kill the Chancellor. I’d rather not cuff you.”

Fives unsticks his tongue from the roof of his mouth. His body’s responsiveness is getting worse, not better, which can’t mean anything good for his prospects of coherently laying out the situation if he manages to shake off Cody and track down Rex. And Skywalker loves the Chancellor, might not believe him even if he’s miraculously lucid by then. But Cody—maybe this is better. Of all his command-class _vode_ , Cody might be the most likely to believe him.

He warms to the idea. Cody plays things too close to the vest for Fives to know for certain if there’s any truth to the rumors about the Marshal Commander and his General, but he’s seen the way Cody looks at the man. He’s seen them fight together, moving the way the stories said the ancient Mandalorian pair-warriors had.

He’s heard the usual gossip about other Commanders and their Jedi, but he doesn’t know them like he knows Cody. Cody might believe him because he’s got the most to lose.

“If you let me up, I’ll explain,” he agrees finally. “I’m unarmed.”

The arms pinning him relax, and Cody rolls up to his feet, holding out a hand. Fives catches it, standing up a little too fast and swaying when he notices the other trooper standing with Cody. Unmarked armor, and he sees now that Cody’s in unpainted whites, too, though he’s taking off his helmet. Probably to reassure Fives that he is who he says he is. Cody’s good like that, knows how to reassure the people around him. He and his man must be running some sort of separate mission.

The world pitches worryingly around Fives, and he squeezes his eyes shut to try and settle his stomach.

“Woah, _vod_ _,_ ” Cody says, moving to brace him. “You aren’t in any state to be running around the lower levels. What the kriff happened?”

“Got drugged. Found out a lot of—” he breaks off, remembering the unknown second trooper, and course-corrects, “—new intel. I’ll share it if you can get us somewhere private.”

Cody glances at the other trooper, who tilts their head. Boil, maybe? “Fives, I know you’re a good man, but I’m going to need more information if you’re expecting me to help you hide from the entire Coruscant Guard and every active-duty trooper on planet.”

“Not hide,” Fives says, grim. “I don’t think I’m going to last long enough for that. Don’t know what the drug was. But the intel has to be safe—Cody, you have to promise you’ll hear me out.”

Cody looks increasingly alarmed. “ _Udesii, vod_. I’ll hear you out. But give me a little more to go on.”

Fives nods warily at the other trooper, who hasn’t taken off their helmet but nods back. “Who’s he? This is going to make me sound insane, and I don’t want to get shot for telling the truth.”

“Anything you say to me, you can say to him,” Cody says. Fives knows that tone, recognizes it as the one Cody uses when he’s decided something and won’t be moved from it.

Must be Boil, then. Fives takes a deep breath, glancing around and then wincing as it makes his head spin again. “All right, just, don’t tell me I’m crazy. I ran the medical scans to prove it, but—well, any of us can run them, with a good enough med-droid that wants to cooperate. And we’ll all have to, before this is done. It’s in all of us, it’ll take hours to run through all of us. All two karking million of us.”

Probably-Boil has moved to mostly block them from view of the street, and he signs something at Cody that Fives is too woozy to follow.

Cody nods. “Get to the point, Fives. We can’t stay in this alley forever,” he says.

“I found out about a conspiracy at the heart of the GAR,” Fives says lowly, and Cody raises his eyebrows in polite disbelief, but doesn’t stop him from continuing. “Tup—we were working with Generals Tiplar and Tiplee, and something went wrong and he just, he shot Master Tiplar. With intent to kill. He kept saying ‘Good soldiers follow orders.’ And they shipped him back to Kamino for examination, and I followed him. I knew something was wrong. I convinced a droid to run scans on us, and it found something in his head, a tumor. But the same one was in mine, in my head. Less decayed than his.”

“A tumor made him kill Tiplar?”

“That’s the thing. It wasn’t a tumor. It’s a chip—activation-based mind control protocol. And it’s in all our heads,” Fives hisses. “It’s in all of us from before decanting, I scanned the tubies before they caught me. It’s some sort of failsafe the longnecks built in, but only the Chancellor has access, he can order us to fire on the Jedi and we wouldn’t be able to disobey. He told me himself. I didn’t try to kill him, he told me that with a karking smile on his face and then let me go in time to call in the Guard. He could have made me try to kill General Skywalker, and I wouldn’t even have had a choice if I hadn’t taken out that piece of _osik_ chip. Or make Rex, Jesse, any of us.” He pauses, and then decides to gamble. “Little gods, he could make you fire on General Kenobi, you _know_ I wouldn’t lie to you about that, Cody. _Ori’vod_ , you know I know how much you—”

“Stop! Stop,” Cody interrupts him, holding up a hand. “That was a lot of information. Give me a minute to think.”

Fives nods, dimly realizing that he’s panting as if he’s just sprinted ten klicks. The drug’s effects are definitely worsening. It hits him that he probably won’t make it another full day if Cody doesn’t believe him. Cody has to believe him. What the kark is he going to do if Cody, _Marshal Commander_ Cody, doesn’t believe him? The GAR will be as good as lost.

Cody looks at him, scrutinizing. Fives fights not to twitch—that’s the look that has gotten the 501st and 212th out of a million scrapes.

“You can check your own head, check Boil’s, Flask’s, anyone’s,” Fives says. “It’s in all of us. I’ll swear on anything you want, this thing can take our free will like we never had it. It can turn us into clankers.”

Cody says nothing, but turns to Probably-Boil.

“He’s telling the truth, or what he knows of it,” the trooper says, and Fives startles. He doesn’t have the voice of a brother, even with the helmet vocoder, but it’s familiar—and then the trooper reaches up and takes his helmet off.

It’s not Boil at all. The man with Cody, kitted out in full clone armor, is General Obi-Wan Kenobi.

-

Cody turns back to Fives, who has frozen like a Dantooinian hare before a predator. He doesn’t look like he’s going to last long, running, and his pupils are mismatched. Cody doesn’t like any of this, and he likes even less the idea that whatever was in Fives’ head is in everyone’s.

“The mission?” he asks Obi-Wan.

They had, officially, been down here looking for a spice smuggling ring. Fox had tossed the datapad at Cody’s head when he walked into the Guard offices less than twelve hours into shore leave, ready to start climbing the walls after Flask had forbidden him or the General from working in their offices on the _Vigilance_. Obi-Wan had tagged along for reasons he wouldn’t fully disclose, but that Cody suspected had to do with wanting plausible deniability if asked about Skywalker and Senator Amidala’s whereabouts, and then they’d got the all-hands about Fives.

“It’ll wait,” Obi-Wan says, grim. “There’s a door to the Temple two levels up, on 3783. Can you tell us who drugged you, Fives? We need to get you to the healers.”

“That _kaminii_ scientist, after General Ti agreed to take me to the Chancellor,” Fives manages. “Wanted to decommission me.”

He’s still tense, and Obi-Wan must notice, because his face goes gentle. “We won’t let that happen.”

Fives relaxes, but only a little.

“Right,” Cody says. He doesn’t know where the door Obi-Wan’s talking about is, but they’re a few blocks due northwest of the Temple. He hands Fives his helmet. “Wear this. General, put yours back on and lead the way. You two will be too recognizable without them.”

Obi-Wan nods and puts his helmet on as he walks ahead. Fives stares at Cody’s helmet, uncomprehending, before turning back to look at Cody. “I hope I don’t throw up in your bucket, _vod_ ,” he says.

“Just put it on, and let’s go,” Cody says, signing a confirmation at Obi-Wan, who is gesturing them forward and left.

They make their way through the alleys rather than streets, and at one point Cody gets a prickling sense that they’re being watched, but nobody is there when he turns around. Fives becomes steadily more of a deadweight on his shoulder.

“Don’t pass out on me,” he mutters.

“Can’t promise anything, sir.”

They stop in front of an unmarked metal door in an alcove which is otherwise full of the Coruscanti litter that is omnipresent below the 4600s. Obi-Wan stands in the shadow of a wall, taking off his helmet and dialing something on his wristcomm.

It beeps for long moments, and then clicks on. “I need you to let me into Jan’nai’s Door as soon as you can,” Obi-Wan says without waiting for a verbal response. “I’m sorry. I know you’re still locked down, but I need your help.”

A few seconds of silence, and then the crackle of someone sighing over comm. “Jan’nai’s Door? Kenobi, I didn’t know you had it in you,” a voice answers. An annoying, familiar voice.

“Vos, it’s a bit of an emergency,” Obi-Wan says shortly. “Bring Bant if you can find her.”

“Copy,” Vos says, abruptly serious. “Does that mean I should actually bring Vokara?”

“No need,” Obi-Wan says. “We need Bant’s specific talents.”

“Fine. I hope you haven’t gotten yourself poisoned. Or shot. Again.”

He clicks off, and Obi-Wan exhales, loud in the gloom. Cody doesn’t think Fives is going to last much longer under his own power.

“It shouldn’t take long,” Obi-Wan says, casting a look back at them.

“Copy, General,” Fives says, but Cody’s taking most of his weight at this point. 

Cody taps him on the helmet with a gloved hand. “Stay sharp.”

Fives laughs. “I left sharp behind a while ago. But promise me you’ll get it out, Cody,” Fives says. “If they catch me, if they kill me, promise me you’ll help our brothers.”

“They won’t catch you,” Cody says firmly, hoping that he isn’t making a liar of himself.

Fives snorts a laugh. “You’re no _jetii_. You don’t know. Just promise me, all right?”

“Yeah, I promise, Fives,” Cody agrees. It's the only thing he can do. “Stay awake for me a bit longer, yeah?”

“They’ll be here in a moment,” Obi-Wan says, and true to his word, the door slides open in a brilliant burst of white light which Cody, without his helmet, raises an arm to shield his eyes from. Fives, next to him, barely seems to register it.

He feels the welcome weight of his General’s hand on his shoulder, pushing him forward into the light.

“Keep walking forward, Cody,” Obi-Wan murmurs. “I’ve got you.”

Eventually, the light fades, and they’re standing in a hallway like any other in the Temple, but instead of swarms of Jedi hurrying back and forth, only Vos and a vaguely recognizable Mon Calamari Jedi wait to greet them. General Bant Eerin, his memory supplies. Primary specialist in aquatic assaults, secondary in Force healing. Second Systems Army, he thinks.

Fives droops against Cody. “I really do think I’m going to throw up in your bucket,” he says, and pops the seal to take it off. He looks like he’s running a fever, and he’s gone about three shades paler than their normal tone.

A complicated exchange of glances between the three Jedi.

“You’re a wanted man, ARC Trooper Fives,” Vos says finally, before turning to look at Obi-Wan. “Care to explain?”

“He needs medical attention,” Obi-Wan says. “We’ll explain there. He’s been drugged with something that’s slowing his response time.”

“And it’s been steadily getting worse,” Cody adds. “Sirs.”

“Feels like it’s doing my karking head in,” Fives says with the manic cheer of someone who is certain they are going to die.

“Medical wing, now,” Eerin says. She makes to support Fives on his other side, but stops and steps back when he winces. “Can you two walk? It’s not that far.”

“Always just a few more steps, General,” Fives says, mustering a grin.

Cody, who is presently taking most of his weight, gives him a sideways glance, which Fives either ignores or doesn’t register.

Eerin gestures for them to follow, and they troop after her, Vos bringing up the rear. “Can you tell me anything about what you’re drugged with?”

“It was injected,” Fives says. “Makes it hard to, uh, think. Really hard. Nerves are fried. Vision’s been getting worse, I keep seeing flashes.”

“Whatever it is, it’s Kaminoan in make,” Obi-Wan says.

Cody’s never been very good at reading Mon Calamari facial expressions, but Eerin looks unhappy. “Blood tests first, then,” she says, keying open a door and ushering them inside.

Cody lifts Fives onto a cot, and he and Obi-Wan get one of his vambraces off. Fives is aware enough to roll up his sleeve, though it takes him three tries. “I’ll be taking a sample now, Fives,” she says, and waits for him to nod before she wipes down the crook of his elbow and sticks a needle in briefly.

“I didn’t even feel that,” Fives mutters.

That doesn’t sound like a good sign to Cody, but Eerin just says, “Hang in there a bit longer. Are you familiar with a medical Force scan?”

Fives waves a hand. “C’mder Tano did one, once,” he says. “Or tried.”

“I will do one now, but if you feel any pain, let me know,” Eerin says, and passes a hand over Fives’ head, before frowning and stepping away.

“Bant has a subspecialty in poisons,” Vos explains, absently taking the datapad Eerin thrusts at him as she plugs Fives’ sample into an archaic-looking analyzer.

“It’s in toxins, actually, which I know you’re well-aware of because of that incident with the Trandoshan vipers,” Eerin says. She scrolls through the data the computer spits out, and her eyes crease in triumph. “You’re in luck, Fives. Quin, get me a booster from the blue cabinet in Bay 15-3.”

“Roger, roger,” Vos says, letting her exchange a keycard for the datapad and disappearing through the doorway.

“I’m synthesizing an antidote, but you’ll need time to process it, and I’m going to put you on a drip to stabilize your vitals,” Eerin says.

“You’re better at this than Commander Tano,” Fives says, blearily watching her stick an IV into his arm.

Obi-Wan chuckles. “Unfortunately, Ahsoka was never very good at the medical modules,” he says.

Vos reemerges, and tosses Eerin some sort of sealed needle, which she strips efficiently of its packaging and plugs into Fives’ shoulder.

“Are we secure?” Fives mumbles.

“Yeah, Fives, we’re secure. I have the watch,” Cody says, squeezing his free shoulder.

The analyzer beeps and produces a new vial, which Eerin examines in satisfaction before tipping it into a new hypo and sticking Fives with it. Fives instantly relaxes, head falling back against the cot.

“The burning’s gone,” he says, wondering.

“Good,” Eerin says. “You’ll ache for hours as it works its way through your system, but it won’t kill you, and your reflexes should come back shortly.” She glances at Obi-Wan. “There’s not much down on this level, but he just has to wait it out now, and usually, nobody’s down this far unless they’re looking for something in cold storage. We aren’t likely to be found here.”

Obi-Wan nods. “Thank you, Bant.”

Vos props his chin in his hands and looks at Obi-Wan. “Well, this has been very interesting, and I don’t know about you, Bant, but personally, I think it’s time for some more info about why Obi-Wan called me to open the deepest Temple door that only a handful of Shadows know how to open, and why we’re currently harboring a wanted fugitive,” Vos says, voice pleasant and eyes sharp. “Not that I mind, having been a wanted fugitive at various points in time, including pretty recently, but it’s always nice to have a reason. Or more than one.”

Eerin is quiet, but Cody can tell she’s listening from the way she tilts her head from where she’s facing the data readout.

Obi-Wan looks to Cody, and Cody nods at him. “I think we need your box for this,” Obi-Wan says to Vos.

Vos gives little away, but his eyes widen slightly. He takes out a small, rectangular device from a pocket in his robes and clicks it on. “That’s two very illegal favors I’ve done for you today, Kenobi,” he says.

Obi-Wan smiles fleetingly. “There might be more before the day is out,” he says. “If what Fives has said about his circumstances is true, the entire GAR is compromised. Anakin was on a mission with Masters Tiplar and Tiplee, when a trooper named Tup in the 501st abruptly shot and killed Master Tiplar, convinced that he was acting under orders.”

“I read that report,” Vos says, eyes narrowed. “Came through a day or two ago. Sounded like a massive kark-up.”

Obi-Wan inclines his head. “Just so. Only, it may not have been a defect or a mistake at all. Fives followed Tup to Kamino, and found out that the Kaminoans put obedience chips into all his brothers’ heads before they were born, chips that could make them follow orders without question.”

“Slave chips,” Eerin whispers, horror in her voice. Cody barely stops himself from flinching.

“Tup’s malfunctioned, activated early somehow. They can make us into karking meat clankers,” Fives says groggily. “You should’ve—you didn’t see Tup. He was a good man, and then it was like he wasn’t even there. I had to take mine out. I had to. We all have to take them out. The Chancellor admitted it, he told me himself that they’re control chips. _Kaminiise_ told General Ti they were to make us ‘less aggressive’ than the template.”

A ringing silence. Fives is breathing hard again, and Cody squeezes his hand. Fives closes his eyes, visibly calming himself down and sinking back to the pillow.

“All right, that’s a good reason to break a few laws,” Vos says at last.

Cody swallows. “If it’s true, I don’t want it in my head,” he says. “Or any of my brothers’. Even if it’s a safety precaution. You can check me first, and then we’ll know if Fives is right.”

Obi-Wan puts a hand on his arm, sends him a pulse of _warmth-strength-calm_ , and Cody feels a bit of tension seep out of his shoulders as the moments tick by.

Eerin paces a tight circle around the room, reminding Cody of the gliding underwater predators of Kamino. “It sounds like we need an atomic-level scanner to find it and a surgery droid to take it out, and I won’t be able to get either of those until later today. I’m no good with precision tools, or I’d offer to check the old-fashioned way. It’ll be too busy on the upper levels right now, and half the Coruscant Guard is after Fives.”

“The entire Guard,” Cody corrects. “And every active trooper on-planet.”

“And probably Anakin,” Obi-Wan says, grimacing.

“Thank you,” Eerin says dryly. “Wouldn’t want to think averting potential widescale catastrophe was too easy.”

“And if it’s true, all those troopers can be turned against us if we get noticed,” Vos points out. “I need to get a look at how the chips work. Even if they’re organics-based, I can probably slice into one.”

“If you can hold out here for a few hours, I can run a scan on Commander Cody and we’ll have more details,” Eerin says. “Nobody goes through Jan’nai’s Door besides Shadows, and I forgot where it even was. Better to wait until Fives is in the clear, then move carefully to learn the truth.”

“Bant is right,” Obi-Wan says. “We have a few hours of waiting ahead of us.”

“Hurry up and wait?” Cody asks, sitting down and quirking a smile.

Obi-Wan lowers himself into the chair next to his, and presses their arms together from shoulder to elbow, armor clicking. “Hurry up and wait, indeed,” he agrees.

Eerin hauls Vos over to look at the data, and Fives groans and opens his eyes, before immediately closing them again with a pained expression.

“What is it, Fives?” Cody asks.

Fives throws a hand over his face. “This _osik_ hurts like getting trampled,” Fives says. “Think I’m getting my head back, though.”

Obi-Wan smiles, relieved. “That’s excellent news,” he says.

Vos tilts his head. “How about a distraction, Fives? Did you explain Jan’nai’s Door to them, Kenobi, or did you just show up without mentioning the tunnel of light?”

“We didn’t have time,” Obi-Wan hedges.

“Figured it was some crazy Force _osik_ _,_ to be honest,” Cody says.

“It’s a good story,” Vos needles. “A good, _distracting_ story, for which we have plenty of time before the standard medbays clear out and Bant can sneak us supplies.”

“And you tell it so well,” Eerin says, hiding a grin behind her hand when Obi-Wan shoots her a betrayed look.

“A distraction would be good. Let’s hear it, sir,” Fives says, eyes closed, and that settles it. He’s always been bold, Cody thinks fondly.

Obi-Wan sighs and meets Cody’s eyes. Cody raises an eyebrow, and Obi-Wan smiles ruefully and leans back in his chair. “It is a good story, though I only know the translated version,” he says. “Very well. So begins the tale of Jan’nai and Lor-Akar.”

Vos scoffs, covering the click as he holds up his jammer and turns it off, pocketing it again. Message received, Cody thinks.

“I know you know the whole introduction,” Vos says. “Nu made sure _I_ knew the whole introduction. Come on, Kenobi, put some effort in. I’ll even do the embarrassing part for you.”

“You are exceptionally irritating, and if you interrupt me again, I’ll tell Aayla about that time with the maglevs on 3720,” Obi-Wan says sweetly.

Vos blanches. “You wouldn’t,” he says.

“Don’t try me,” Obi-Wan says, but acquiesces and changes his tone into what Cody privately thinks of as his lecturing voice. “The names of the years of the Great Sith War are many, and the tales also are many. Nomi Sunrider, Ulic Qel-Droma—these are the names we know. Here we tell of two more names steeped in shadow, yet of the light. They were hunted, but never caught; they worked not for praise or glory; they were beloved enemies and builders, whose only names are written in the deeds of our hands, and otherwise lost to us. So begins the tale of Jan’nai and Lor-Akar, of Ahn-Aten and Mandalore, and of the Jedi.”

“Child of clan-bound Mandalore, Lor-Akar’s parent passed when she had but sixteen long summers. But she was wise, and she had trained, and bested all the finest warriors. She had a gift, it was said. Her parent had left her a dark blade, used to unite the northern clans. She ruled well, and years passed, and her people prospered.”

“Then the war came, and wise young Lor-Akar was offered strength three times by the Sith Lord Exar Kun. First, strength of the body, but Lor-Akar said, ‘What use have I for the body? It fades, and I need no more than I am given.’ Second, strength of the mind, but Lor-Akar said, ‘My clan is my mind, and when I forget the faces of my daughters and sisters, they will remind me.’ Third, strength of the heart, but Lor-Akar laughed and said, ‘I will know it when I find it, but I will never seek it.’ And Exar Kun said, ‘Foolish one, what do you choose over power but oblivion?’ And Lor-Akar said, ‘I choose my own counsel, for never will the Mando’ade submit to a tyrant.’”

“After Lor-Akar’s rejection of Exar Kun, the Sith razed Mandalore, scattering the Mando’ade to the seven winds of fate. Lor-Akar lost her daughters and her sisters, and vowed vengeance by blood. She fought, and mourned, and sang.”

“Child of the red starfields of Ahn-Aten, Jan’nai was found by the Seeker Thon, who took her to Ossus to the Great Library. Between the cliffs and the fields, Jan’nai knew duty and freedom, and the work of her hands was building. Jan’nai was leader of no one, but the rivers obeyed her and none other, and the stones lifted for her works, and the beasts of the mountains spoke to her as their own.”

“Then the war came, and the Sith Lord Exar Kun told the Seeker Thon that Ossus was consigned to destruction, for it held too much knowledge. The Seeker Thon bade Jan’nai leave to find her siblings, to learn the Force for battle as he had wished to protect her from, to run from what he knew would be his own death-place. And Jan’nai said, ‘How can I live knowing who I left behind?’ And the Seeker Thon said, ‘You will live, for you are a Jedi, and the light in your heart will ever guide you.’”

“After Jan’nai’s home at Ossus was destroyed, leaving only ruin, and the Seeker Thon killed protecting her from the Sith, Jan’nai sought out the Order on Coruscant, and vowed justice by blood. She fought, and mourned, and built.”

Vos clears his throat, and picks up the thread.

“And so it was that Lor-Akar and Jan’nai moved as binary stars in different battles, orbiting but never meeting, until Nomi Sunrider called a Council of the Free to move on the stronghold of Exar Kun. The leaders fought together, testing each other, for never before had the Jedi stood united with so many other peoples, and many were uncertain,” Vos says.

“But Jan’nai and Lor-Akar knew from the moment they fought that they would go to the field together, or not at all. And so Jan’nai said, ‘I will fight beside you, until I am struck down where I stand,’ and Lor-Akar swore the same, for neither of them had ever seen the other’s like, though they would face the wrath of their people for it.”

“So it was Jan’nai, who ever leapt beyond the ledge, who told Lor-Akar, ‘I give you my blade, and keep it well, for I know what it means in your language and in mine.’ Lor-Akar, who never sought such a thing but knew it when she found it, said, ‘I give you my blade, and keep it well, for you know what it means in my language and in yours.’ And so they exchanged blades, and went to battle.”

Obi-Wan nods, and takes back the story.

“And when they met Exar Kun in the forests of Onderon with Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Riders, they fought as one, for the Force was not with Jan’nai alone, but with Lor-Akar also,” Obi-Wan says. “Yet Exar Kun was powerful, and slew many Mando’ade and Jedi alike before Jan’nai and Lor-Akar reached him, and turned aside Lor-Akar’s blade in Jan’nai’s hand, binding Jan’nai with Sith magicks. And Exar Kun said to Lor-Akar, ‘Do you see the oblivion that comes for you, Mand’alor? Surrender your blade to me, the only one worthy of it, and I will spare you on this day.’”

“And wise Lor-Akar knelt, picked up her dark blade where it had fallen, and said, ‘My people are more important than my life or my blade. I bid you take this and raise it not against them, and let us walk from here together.’ But the oathbreaker Exar Kun said, ‘This one is not of your people.’ And he took Lor-Akar’s blade and plunged it through the heart of Jan’nai.”

Cody’s wristcomm starts beeping with an incoming call from the Chancellor and Obi-Wan cuts himself off.

Cody feels a pang of loss for the story, and considers the beeping. He’s still officially on leave, even if he got called for the all-hands, and he doesn’t like anything Obi-Wan has said about the man, and he _definitely_ doesn’t like what Fives has told them today.

“It’s the Chancellor,” he says.

Obi-Wan looks at him calmly, like a man with the utmost faith. “You’d better take that, I think,” he says.

Cody hesitates, his paranoia rearing its head. What if Fives is right about all of it? What if the Chancellor knows they’ve effectively gone rogue?

Obi-Wan puts a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I trust you,” he says.

Cody feels the words land heavily on his heart, and swallows. If there’s something in his head—if the Chancellor can turn him on anybody, can _control_ him—well. He’ll have to trust that between all of them in this room, they’ll be able to handle one clone. He’ll have to trust Obi-Wan, which is easy enough. That’s the easiest thing in the world.

“Sir,” he murmurs to Obi-Wan, before squaring his shoulders and answering the call. “CC-2224 here, Chancellor.”

“Status report, if you please, Commander,” the Chancellor says.

He’s calling for a status report? Cody thinks he’s getting one of Obi-Wan’s “bad feelings” about this, and carefully shifts to turn the internal recording mechanism in his wristcomm on. Vos is watching him, sitting with the sort of deceptively relaxed posture that Cody’s seen Obi-Wan wear to hide battle-ready tension.

“General Kenobi and I are on a mission in the lower levels of Coruscant, but have not found our target yet, sir. I assure you, your Office and the Council will receive a full report when we reach mission objective.” He’s only telling the truth. Strictly speaking.

“A mission, hm? Is Kenobi with you now?”

Cody flicks a glance at Obi-Wan, who nods.

“He is, sir,” Cody says. The sense of foreboding grows.

“Are the two of you in a secure location?”

Very technically, yes, but he suspects it’s not in the way the Chancellor means. “Yes, sir.”

“Well then, Commander. Consider this a test of your abilities. Execute Order 66.”

Cody’s mind goes blank, and all hell breaks loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mando'a: 
> 
> vod – brother  
> vode – brothers  
> ori’vod – older brother  
> osik – shit  
> Jetiise – Jedi (plural)  
> Jetii – Jedi (singular)  
> Kaminii(se) – Kaminoan(s)  
> Udesii, vod – Calm down, brother.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone who I angered immensely with chapter 1! I've been blown away at the response to this story, and I love you all dearly. It turns out that this will be 3 chapters after all and not 2, so for now, enjoy this chapter! With a bit of luck, I should finish this in the next week or so.

Fives is moving before he even hears the link cut off, pulling the line out of his wrist and rolling off the cot with a wince in time to see Cody lunge for a scalpel and then throw it with terrifying accuracy at Vos’s head, but Fives doesn’t wait to see if the Jedi has deflected it or not.

His primary target here is Cody, because Cody’s primary target is Kenobi.

He’ll also be trying to kill everyone else in the room, of course, and maybe trying to kill Fives for a traitor, but Fives knows with a sick certainty that he’s the only one who will react fast enough to stop him, now that his head is almost completely clear of the drug. The others are _Jedi,_ and not the Krell kind—even with what Fives has told them, they’re not going to expect Cody to be prepared to do absolutely anything.

Cody is already facing off with his General with his teeth bared in a snarl. Eerin is between them and the counter Cody’s DC-15A rests against, and Vos is warily glancing between all of them. Nobody seems to have noticed Fives crouching low and making his way around Cody, and he hopes to keep it that way. His mind is clear for the first time in days, whatever antidote booster Kenobi’s friend gave him throwing everything into crystalline detail.

Cody launches himself at Kenobi, but Vos shoves him out of the way first, and it seems any Jedi will satisfy the chip, because Cody is now tangled with Vos on the ground, trying to get him in a headlock.

“I don’t want to hurt him,” Kenobi says. “Bant, find us a sedative, and find Vokara, if you can. Or a blaster with a stun setting.”

Cody must not have been carrying his holdout blaster—a stun at close range from the Deece is more likely to put someone in a coma than to knock them out for a minute, and Cody doesn’t have his helmet on. Eerin nods, and takes off for the upper levels of the medical wing.

“Oh, _now_ you need Vokara?” Vos manages from where he’s got Cody’s arms pinned, huffing with exertion as Cody tries to throw him off.

“Now really isn’t the time, Quinlan.”

Fives finally, finally gets to the Deece while Vos pushes himself away from Cody, both of them circling around each other in the limited space.

“Whose bright idea was it to make the clone template known Jedi-killer Jango Fett?” Vos asks nobody in particular, before Cody launches himself at the Jedi again.

“General Kenobi,” Fives says, low and urgent. “Do you remember what General Skywalker did, over Mygeeto?”

Kenobi’s eyes widen, and he nods, which is enough agreement for Fives. He raises the blaster, and shoots. Two shots, clean kill.

Or it would be, if he’d been shooting at a person, and not at the wall just outside the door that hadn’t cycled closed behind Eerin. Kenobi drops to the ground, having gotten his message.

Vos looks over, and in the moment of distraction Cody manages to stab him in the shoulder with a knife he’s pulled out of somewhere, and Vos starts cursing, but when his eyes skate over Fives and Kenobi, he winks. Fives shoots the floor again, and Vos topples over.

Cody sinks to the ground in the corner, panting harshly, and Fives moves swiftly to block his view. “Hey, Cody,” he says. “It’s over, _ori’vod_. We did it.”

Fives is vaguely aware of motion in his peripheral vision, the Jedi getting up. If Cody had his head on right, he would have noticed by now, but his pupils are blown out and he looks dazed. His nose is bleeding, though that could be from fighting Vos.

“You, you didn’t receive the order,” Cody says, raising a hand to his head and grimacing. “You’re—how do I know you’re not a traitor, too? The Jedi, they’re traitors. But you killed them. You deserve a, something. Commendation. We need to—there’s more of them. We’re the only ones here, we need reinforcements.”

 _Haar’chak,_ that’s something he didn’t even register as a possibility. He really karking hopes the rest of the 212th didn’t get the order, or they’re going to be dead no matter what they try.

“We need to make a plan,” Fives suggests.

Cody stares at him blankly, and Fives has to admit he’s unnerved. Tup had been tossing and turning, agonized, but Cody is just—gone. He was there just minutes ago, looking at General Kenobi like the man had the answer to every question in the galaxy, and now he’s _gone_. Erased.

“The Chancellor,” Cody says slowly. “He said this was a test. It’s us against the whole Temple, Fives. A Temple full of Jedi traitors.”

“Sure,” Fives says, nodding along because the longer Cody keeps talking, the more time Kenobi and Vos have to come up with their own plan.

But Cody must see something, because he gives an inarticulate shout and starts to push Fives out of the way before Fives turns and clamps himself to Cody, immobilizing his arms and legs in the same hold Cody had used on him only hours ago.

Kenobi and Vos walk over, but keep their distance. “Thank you, Fives,” Kenobi says, ignoring Cody’s struggling.

Fives grunts when Cody gets a particularly hard kick in, but doesn’t let go. “Don’t mention it, General. I don’t suppose you have a plan?”

“That will depend,” Kenobi says, expression inscrutable.

When Kenobi shifts a little closer, Cody renews his efforts, elbowing Fives solidly in the ribs. Fives tightens his hold, but when Kenobi leans in to get a hand to Cody’s forehead, Cody tries to headbutt him and shoves away.

“Traitors!” Cody yells. “Fives, let me go!”

“Depend on _what_? I can’t hold him on my own for very long, Generals.”

Vos sighs. “I have to do everything around here. Sorry about this, Obi-Wan,” he says, and in one lightning-fast movement pulls Cody up to knee him firmly between the legs.

Cody howls and curls in on himself, but Vos is already dragging Fives and Obi-Wan out the door, Fives barely managing to pick up Cody’s Deece and the plain bucket he’d been using on the way. Vos kicks the door closed and uses his lightsaber to weld it shut in the middle for good measure, and they move a little ways down the hall.

“That won’t hold him for long, he seems pretty determined and these doors are flimsy,” Vos says.

“We don’t need it to. We need to get him out of here,” Kenobi says. “It seems like any Jedi will be a target, and he won’t let us get close enough to put him to sleep even if I could get past his shielding without breaking him. He took to it too well.”

“We can’t just, uh,” Fives says, then hesitates before deciding to ignore Jedi sensibilities and continue. “Knock him out? The usual way? You know, just clock him in the head?”

Vos looks like he wants to laugh, but is holding himself back for Kenobi’s sake.

Kenobi, on the other hand, has only a weary kind of unhappiness on his face. “We will not do that,” he says, and then adds, “We need that chip whole, as evidence. I don’t want to risk breaking it.”

“We’re close enough to Jan’nai’s Door to get out of the Temple,” Vos suggests. “If we can lead him through the hall. But then he’ll just be, you know, loose. Prowling the streets of Coruscant.”

“Well, there are three of us and only one of him, I’m sure we can keep him more or less in one place until Bant returns with Vokara. And by ‘we,’ I mostly mean me,” Kenobi says in a voice that sounds oh-so-reasonable, features brightening.

“For the record, sir, I think this is a stupid plan,” Fives says, clueing in. He knows he’s not the only one in the 501st who had wondered how serious, graceful, put-together General Kenobi had trained General Skywalker, but he thinks he’s beginning to get it.

“Have to agree with Fives. This is a really stupid plan,” Vos says.

“Where’s your vaunted sense of adventure, Quinlan? That’s the best kind of plan,” Kenobi says with obviously-false cheer. “He’s after me, so it only makes sense that I’ll play bait. I can fight him to a draw for some time.”

“He’s after you to _kill you_ , Obi-Wan,” Vos says. “Let me reiterate, because apparently it hasn’t gotten through: your Commander, a talented close-combat fighter whose genetic template is Jedi-killer Jango Fett, is trying to kill you.”

“Then I suppose it’s fortunate for all of us that I have a great deal of experience avoiding getting killed,” Kenobi replies.

Vos looks skyward. “If Luminara were here, she’d take my side,” he says.

“But she isn’t,” Kenobi says peaceably. “Vos, get the door. Fives, with me, and get ready to run. And keep your helmet on, your tattoo was shown as an identifier on the dangerous persons advisory, and the last thing we need is some wandering pedestrian realizing who you are.”

Fives nods, and kits up.

“The things I do for friendship. And the good of the galaxy,” Vos grumbles, but tosses them a lazy salute and lopes off towards the door.

Kenobi graces Vos with a smile, and then frowns at the door to the medbay. “He’s about to break through. Time to move.”

Vos is halfway down the hall as the door breaks open. Cody steps out, moving with none of his ordinary grace. His nose is still bleeding and his shoulder looks strange—he must have used it to ram the door. Accomplish the objective at any cost, Fives thinks with a chill.

“I admit, this isn’t quite how I imagined saying this,” Kenobi says, pulling Cody’s attention to them. “But Cody? Come and get me.”

Fives wants to gape at him, but there’s no time, and they’re running, Cody-who-is-not-Cody on their heels and Vos ahead of them, pushing open the door they’d come through.

Fives and Kenobi are there soon enough, and the light doesn’t seem nearly so blinding as it had earlier, although it’s still hard to see the other side. Fives is having a hard time moving in a straight line even down what he can see now is a single hallway, bright and featureless and somehow like falling. A little dizzying, but mostly like freedom. Like the weightlessness of space.

Kenobi notices his daze, and slows to let him catch up. “Just close your eyes and move forward,” he says, features earnest. “You’ll be fine.”

The door opens again behind them, and Cody stalks through, and then immediately collapses with a pained noise.

Kenobi curses. “We should have found another door. I had hoped that story wasn’t true,” he mutters, and turns back.

“Sir, what are you doing?” Fives asks, alarmed, but Kenobi is already sprinting to kneel at Cody’s side, so Fives can do little but swear and follow him.

“Cody,” Kenobi is saying. “Cody, you must get up.”

“General,” Cody says. He’s sitting curled in on himself, frame wracked with fine tremors. “What’s going on? Little gods, I tried to kill you—there’s this voice in my head, I can’t stop hearing it. It’s still there, but here it’s, it’s quieter. But it keeps telling me to kill you. I can’t—how could I do that?”

He looks sick. Was that how Fives had looked?

“That won’t happen,” Kenobi says. “But you cannot stay here.”

Vos appears next to them. “Obi-Wan’s right,” he says. “I didn’t realize—I wouldn’t have brought us out this way if I’d known. Darkness can’t survive more than a few minutes in here, but this place is a blunt instrument. If you stay, you’ll be yourself, but the Light will probably kill you trying to burn out the control in your head.”

Cody meets Kenobi’s eyes, anguished. “You should leave me here, then. Necessary sacrifice.”

“No, Cody. I won’t do that,” Kenobi says.

“General, it feels like I don’t belong in my own head,” Cody says. His voice is faraway, haunted.

“I know,” Kenobi says. “And I’m sorry that I have to ask you to bear it. But you have to get up.”

“Come on, Commander,” Vos says. “Time’s ticking.”

“I’m a liability right now, and you all know it,” Cody says.

“ _Vod_ ,” Fives says lowly. Cody only looks at him briefly, before looking away, as if it hurts.

Fives grinds his teeth and swears to himself again that he is going to karking _shoot_ whoever is behind the chips. He’s never been as close to Cody as Rex, but they’ve trained together, they’ve run hours of ops through every possible type of _osik_ together, he trusts Cody with his life and his brothers’ lives. He’s not leaving him behind.

“Leave me here,” Cody tries again, eyes fixed on a point somewhere over Kenobi’s shoulder. “Before I lose control. Before it makes me try to kill you again.”

Kenobi chances a touch to Cody’s shoulder, but withdraws when Cody flinches away. Long seconds pass. Cody continues to shake, and shake, and not get up.

“Please, Cody,” Kenobi says at last. “Trust me.”

Cody gives a watery laugh. “That’s cheating, General.”

Kenobi leans in and whispers something into Cody’s ear, carefully holding himself apart from physical contact, and whatever it is makes Cody give him a single, stricken look before squaring his shoulders and nodding.

Vos turns to Fives. “He’ll need help walking,” he says, and Fives spares a moment to be glad for the sheer obstinacy of these Jedi. If it had been him that Cody had tried to convince about _necessary sacrifices_ , he thinks he would have punched the man and dragged him out anyway, and kark having the intact chip as evidence.

Fives drags Cody’s arm over his shoulders in a strange mirror of how Cody had supported him through this hall earlier. Cody lets Fives pull him along, with only a small pained exhale.

“Fives,” Cody says quietly as they trail behind the Jedi. “Don’t let me get close to either of them. Even if it means you shoot me.” He pauses. “Don’t make me make it an order.”

“I’m not shooting you even if you make that an order,” Fives says frankly. “What are you going to do, have me court-martialed? I’m already on the run from every trooper on Coruscant.”

“Fives, you _shabuir_ , listen to me,” Cody grits out, and drops the pretense. “If I manage to hurt him, I won’t be able to live with myself after. Do you understand?”

“Then I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Fives says. Cody looks like he’s about to start arguing, so Fives adds, “Cody, you have my word. We’re all making it out of this one.”

Cody deflates, still shaking with pain. Fives thinks it’s gotten worse. “Fine,” Cody says. “But as soon as we get through to the other side, you better cover him like it’s your karking job.”

“Copy that,” Fives says.

Vos has already gone through to the outside alcove, but Kenobi turns to give Cody one last, speaking look, before going through himself.

Cody’s steps only barely falter, and then they’re at the door.

“You can’t stay in here,” Fives says, reading his hesitation. “I’ll toss you out the door myself if I have to.”

Cody gives him a small smile. “You’re a lot like Rex, you know,” he says, and they step outside together.

The change is instantaneous—Cody shoves away from Fives and looks around, hunted.

“Hello, Cody,” Kenobi says, and Cody actually growls at him, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides, weaponless.

He takes one step towards Kenobi but Fives moves first, tackling Cody into the ground, and then they’re in the thick of it. For all the training he’s done with the 501st, with _Rex_ , who knows Cody the best out of all of them, he’s not a match for Cody’s viciousness at close range. He’d only gotten the better of Cody earlier by taking him by surprise.

Still, he has a helmet and Cody doesn’t, so the blows that would ordinarily be enough to knock him out only serve to bloody Cody’s knuckles.

Unfortunately, Cody’s fast enough that he’s about to break Fives’ arm anyway, despite his own dislocated shoulder. Fives suspects he doesn’t even feel it. Cody has to be bringing out some Alpha-class training, because Fives hasn’t seen any of these holds before. 

“Karking traitors, all of you,” Cody gets out, leaning on Fives’ back. Fives resigns himself to the broken arm, and tries to forget how much he karking _hates_ having a broken arm. “Good soldiers follow—”

“Hey, Commander!” Vos yells, interrupting him. “Over here.”

Cody throws Fives aside like it’s nothing, and Fives rolls over to catch his breath before pushing himself up as Cody walks heavily towards Vos. Cody’s nose is bleeding again.

“I had intended to be the primary distraction,” Kenobi points out.

“Learn to live with disappointment,” Vos replies mercilessly, and then he’s moving quicker than anyone but a Jedi could, dancing away from Cody.

But Cody isn’t Marshal Commander for nothing, and he moves fast enough to shove Vos to the ground and land two solid hits before the Jedi pushes himself away and straight up into the air, flipping to land a few steps away, swearing the entire time.

Vos presses a hand to his own bloody nose, watching Cody pace closer to him. “Kenobi, your man hits like a karking B-2!”

“Usually, that’s a good thing!”

Fives guesses that makes it his turn again, and lunges after Cody from behind, but this time he isn’t quick enough to manage a headlock. Cody lands a hit to his sternum, where the armor is weak, but Fives avoids it enough that it doesn’t crack any ribs. Still, he’ll be feeling it for days. Then he and Cody are on the ground again, struggling against each other.

When he gets back to the 501st, Fives thinks dimly, he’s going to insist on close combat training with Rex. Rex had complained about Cody’s penchant for punching droids in the face, but this is ridiculous. Fives can’t even last two minutes against him, and he’s a kriffing ARC.

“Why are you helping them?” Cody gets out. “They’re traitors! Why are you doing this?”

“When you were yourself, you asked me to, so karking _stand down_ ,” Fives says.

Cody shakes his head. “No,” he says. “No, no, I’m a good soldier, and good soldiers—”

“Cody,” Kenobi interrupts, and Fives hears the telltale snap-woosh of a lightsaber igniting.

Cody turns, scowling. “Jedi,” Cody replies, no recognition in his voice at all, and throws himself at Kenobi even as Kenobi’s moving, leaping up and over Cody entirely.

But Cody anticipates it, and he’s shifting to meet him, aiming hit after hit at Kenobi, who keeps evading them. His blue blade is a beacon in the murk of the alley.

Then he flicks it off, letting Cody get a little closer. Cody circles, and then lashes out with another terrifying combination that Fives has never seen before, but Kenobi is somehow matching blow for blow. Even if Fives tried to intercede right now, he thinks he’d only be a distraction for Kenobi.

Fives stares. He’s never seen them spar, but this is almost too fast to follow, and it lasts for long seconds before Kenobi pushes away.

“I doubt you’ll remember this when you wake up, but I must say, you’re a much better fighter when it’s you in control and not the programming, Cody. I find myself sorely missing the good Commander,” Kenobi says conversationally, batting away a roundhouse kick like it’s nothing.

Cody scowls and launches himself forward, but this time he has a different target.

“General, he’s going after your weapon!” Fives shouts.

“Thank you, I know,” Kenobi replies, jumping out of grabbing range.

Cody’s breathing is loud in the alley, and he’s holding himself stiffly—the moves he’s been pulling out are distinctly non-standard, and they can’t be doing his shoulder any favors, but any self-preservation instinct he might have had is gone right now. It’s hard to watch.

Kenobi tilts his head, as if listening to something none of the rest of them can hear. Then he unclips his lightsaber from his belt, and tosses it at Cody, who catches and ignites it on instinct.

“Try it, maybe it’ll jog your memory,” Kenobi says.

“Are you insane?” Vos hisses, voicing Fives’ thoughts. “Force, what am I saying, of course you are.”

Kenobi huffs from the low wall he’s perched on. “I can sense Bant nearby. And it got his attention, didn’t it? We only need a few moments.”

“It got his attention, and now he has your lightsaber!”

Cody has gone still with the lightsaber humming in his hand. “This is a Jedi weapon, a traitor’s weapon,” he says, brow furrowed. “But I know how to use it. Why do I know how to use it?”

Kenobi smiles sadly. “Oh, Cody. Who do you think taught you?”

For a moment, Cody looks lost, and Fives wonders if he’s somehow managed to beat the chip. Then Cody’s features harden again. “It doesn’t matter. A weapon is a weapon,” Cody says. “And my designation is CC-2224.”

He raises the lightsaber into a stance that Fives has definitely seen before, but before he can attack, he wobbles and the blade turns off. The lightsaber slips from nerveless fingers.

Cody touches his neck, and then his eyes roll back and he falls, Kenobi flashing to his side to catch him.

“I see we got here more or less in time,” Eerin says, standing in the doorway with a Twi’lek Jedi in Healer’s robes.

“Hello, Obi-Wan,” the Twi’lek says. “My most infuriating patient.”

Kenobi pales, clutching Cody to his chest. “Master Che,” he says, voice even. “What did you dose him with?”

“Low-impact high-efficacy tranquilizer. He should be down for an hour, although with clone metabolism it will likely be less than that,” Che says. “But we may need to keep him out for longer, depending on the extent of his other injuries.”

Kenobi nods. “We need to get him to surgery as soon as possible.”

Che glances at them. “And the others?”

Vos leaps over to Fives and waves her off. “Lower priority,” he says, and she turns away.

Fives eyes Vos. “Will Cody be fine going back through that hall?” he asks neutrally. Across the alley, Kenobi has gingerly lifted a still-unconscious Cody in his arms, and Che is leading them back into the Temple.

Vos nods absently. “Yeah, it only works on active darkness. He’s unconscious, it won’t hurt him.”

Fives clenches his jaw. More crazy Force _osik , _like Cody had said.

Vos must sense Fives’ doubt, because he turns his full attention on Fives, a blunt sort of honesty in his eyes. “He’ll be fine.”

Cody doesn’t so much as twitch as he’s carried over the threshold, and Fives lets himself breathe a small sigh of relief.

Vos turns to Fives. “Come on, we’re going back in with them.”

“Yes, General,” Fives says, suppressing a chuckle at the way Vos grimaces at the title.

“That’s one way to make me glad they haven’t sent me into the field yet,” Vos says, and then freezes in his steps and goes alert, narrowing his eyes.

Fives doesn’t like that look. “What is it?” 

“Pass me your blaster?” Vos asks instead of answering.

Fives blinks but hands it to the Jedi, who turns and shoots something out of the air with probably-Force-assisted accuracy. Vos walks over, and then swears several times in Basic and Mando’a and probably in a few other languages Fives doesn’t know.

“Probe droid,” Vos spits. “Probably caught the last few minutes at least.”

“Was it transmitting?” Fives hazards, once the curses trail off.

“I don’t know,” Vos says, grim.

-

Cody comes awake to the sound of furious whispering and an ache in his shoulder like it got dislocated and reset sometime recently without any painkillers. The rest of him also feels like he got run over with a tank, but the shoulder is a more acute pain. He opens one eye, blurrily registering the two Jedi sitting next to his cot in what looks like a different medbay from the one they’d had Fives in.

“It’s an abomination,” Obi-Wan is saying. “It was already an abomination even before we knew about these codes.”

“That’s putting it mildly. You should have let me karking go after them when I had the chance,” Vos says through gritted teeth. “At least then we would have known who they are.”

“You would have paid your soul as the price, and still lost,” Obi-Wan says sharply, shaking his head. “Not an acceptable outcome. You’re not a match for a Sith Master, Quin, even if you had managed to outwit Dooku to get to them.”

Vos deflates. “I know,” he says. “But how do we fight someone we can’t find?”

Obi-Wan puts a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find them,” he says. “We already know far more than we did two days ago. And Cody, you can stop pretending to be asleep, now.”

“Sirs,” Cody says. “What happened?”

Vos glances at Obi-Wan warily, but Obi-Wan keeps his eyes on Cody’s. “You’ve been out for about twelve hours,” Obi-Wan says. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“I got a call from the Chancellor, who was asking for a mission update—” Cody breaks off and scrambles up the bed, as far from Obi-Wan as he can. He _remembers_. Little gods, what did he almost do?

“Cody,” Obi-Wan says softly. “It wasn’t you.”

Obi-Wan reaches out a hand for him, but pulls it back when Cody shakes his head, terrified and still trying to find words. He tried to kill his Jedi. Fives had been right, one order from Palpatine and he’d turned into a karking meat droid, he could have killed Obi-Wan, if he’d been just a few seconds quicker. He should have stayed in that kriffing magical Jedi doorway and let it burn him out, and if he hadn’t been going out of his mind, he would have insisted.

He tried to kill Obi-Wan, he thinks again. He feels like he’s going to be sick.

Vos clears his throat. “I’ll let you two sort this one out,” he says, and walks out, door cycling closed behind him.

Obi-Wan waits, watching him with infinite patience and a gentleness that Cody doesn’t deserve. Cody tries to get his breathing under control. He’s not a karking shiny, he can handle himself.

“I tried to kill you,” Cody says finally, once he doesn’t feel like he’s about to hyperventilate.

“It wasn’t you,” Obi-Wan repeats vehemently, shaking his head. “I know you would never, Cody. You said it yourself, you weren’t in control.”

“It was my body, it was my hands. You should have left me in that door. How do you even know I’m safe to be around? We don’t know anything about the chip, what if I try again? How can you stand to be near me, what if I—” Cody’s voice cuts out and he fights to breathe evenly again, and then there are steady hands holding him still. He squeezes his eyes shut, pressing down the ache in his throat.

“You won’t,” Obi-Wan says. “You didn’t, and you won’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

“The chip is gone and the Mind Healers spent some time ensuring it didn’t leave a trace, so I do know, actually,” Obi-Wan says.

“How can you just—move past it, how can you look at me like that?”

“Cody, you know I trust you with my life.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t,” Cody whispers.

He opens his eyes to find Obi-Wan looking back at him, eyes crinkled at the corners with a half-smile. “That’s a choice I get to make, don’t you think?”

Cody feels a wave of helpless fondness, knows that Obi-Wan has already chosen. Crazy, foolish, _jare’la jetii_. He doesn’t care half as much for his own wellbeing as he should, he doesn’t ever sleep enough, and he’s a fighter fit to match the best of them. He threw Cody his lightsaber while Cody was trying to kill him. Caring about him is going to drive Cody into an early grave, even for a clone.

It’s too bad that Cody would sooner die than let anyone else take his place at Obi-Wan’s side.

He sighs, and lets acceptance carry him past the fear. “Thank you,” he says.

Obi-Wan beams at him, because he knows Cody, too.

Cody decides to save them both further embarrassment, and changes the topic. “The door. Read me in?”

Obi-Wan raises an eyebrow, but accepts the redirect. “Quinlan has a theory about why it affected you the way it did.”

“I’m not going to like this theory, am I?”

“I don’t particularly like it myself, but it’s the best one we have, and I know you’ll be cross with me if you don’t get a full debrief, despite the fact that you should be on bedrest for a few more hours,” Obi-Wan says, and then raises his voice. “Vos! I know you’re lurking out there.”

Vos steps back into the room smoothly. “I like to call it ‘waiting for an opportune moment,’” he says. He nods at Cody. “Commander. Glad to see you’re yourself again.”

“General,” Cody says. “General Kenobi said you have a theory about why I couldn’t get through the door.”

Vos blows out a long breath. “I do. Padawan gossip mill always said that Knights and Masters used it for secret affairs, but Shadow histories say Jan’nai built it in her years on Coruscant to burn out Sith influence on anyone who passed through it,” Vos says. “Officially, we mostly use it as a test for Shadows who brush too close to the Dark. I couldn’t walk through it without crying while Aayla half-carried me when I came back two months ago.”

Obi-Wan frowns. “That’s cruel,” he says. “I didn’t know that.”

Vos shrugs. “I was in deep, Obi-Wan, you know that they couldn’t have let me back without some kind of insurance. And what I mean to say is that Jan’nai’s Door doesn’t just burn out Darkness. It specifically targets anything made by the Sith.” He fixes Cody with a serious look. “Which means that it went after that chip in your head because it’s Sith work.”

“The _dar’jetii_?” Cody asks. “Why would they put a mind-control chip in our heads? What would they want with a bunch of clones?”

“To turn you on their enemies—us,” Obi-Wan says. “Everything the Sith create is a trap for the Jedi, because the Jedi are sworn to fight them and protect the Light. Dooku told me on Geonosis that there was a Sith Lord pulling the strings in the Senate, but at the time it seemed an absurd notion, and I didn’t believe him.” Obi-Wan looks down. “Now, I fear I may have been too hasty in dismissing the idea.”

“There are always two Sith, a Master and an Apprentice,” Vos says. “Though now there might be more, since Maul is back, and he can’t have ever been the Master, because we know Dooku is also an Apprentice and Maul only returned late in the war. We think they have the same Master.”

Cody remembers the conversation he had woken up to. “And you don’t know who the Master is,” he says.

Obi-Wan and Vos glance at each other. “No, we do not,” Obi-Wan admits. “We’re still only picking up isolated pieces of a greater puzzle. As of yesterday, we know the chips are a Sith trap from a decade before the beginning of the war. But it was a Jedi who had prophetic visions, Sifo-Dyas, who paid for the creation of the clones. It isn’t impossible that the chips were his idea of a failsafe, which somehow became twisted by the Sith. However, Sifo-Dyas had been dead for years by the time I stumbled onto Kamino, and he had been removed from the Council for walking too close to the Dark, so it is possible that he was actually working _with_ the Sith.”

“Though nobody who was on the Council then wants to hear that,” Vos says.

Obi-Wan shoots him a pointed look, and continues. “We also know that Dooku is the Sith Apprentice, and we can now infer that Palpatine is somehow in league with the Sith, because he has total control of the chips.”

“If the Chancellor is in league with Dooku,” Cody says slowly. “What’s the point of the war?”

“Excellent question,” Obi-Wan says. “One I have pondered at some length myself. There are some other complicating factors: first of all, we don’t know that the Chancellor is in league with Dooku, only that he is part of a Sith plot which may or may not be Dooku’s Sith plot. The Sith progress in their mastery of the Dark by killing each other. Secondly, the Separatist cause did not begin with Dooku, although their tactics under Dooku’s leadership have been far more bloodthirsty. If the war is an immense two-man con, the Separatist planetary governments will turn on Dooku as soon as they realize they’ve been used, so he won’t be able to maintain power.” He frowns. “However, as I said, Dooku himself is a Sith and the primary goal of the Sith is the total annihilation of the Jedi. If the command you received was activated at the same time in all the clones, it would destroy us. The Chancellor had plenty of power before the war, and if he had been clever enough, he could have accumulated more without the war. But if he truly is in league with the Sith, and we’ve all been played for pawns, then the point of the war is the war itself, and the goal is to obliterate the Order.”

Cody suppresses the bone-deep anger at the idea that he and his brothers have been used as gamepieces, programmed to kill their friends for the gain of a madman. Or several madmen. “Maybe an obvious question,” Cody says. “But could the Chancellor be the Sith Master?”

Obi-Wan grimaces. “It’s unlikely. He reads as completely Force-null.”

“But we can’t rule it out. Sith are good at hiding themselves,” Vos says. “We only know Dooku is one because he dragged me down into the Dark. He had me for months, but I never got close enough to figure out who was pulling at his strings. By the time I could have found out, I’d lost myself and wouldn’t have been able to win a fight with a fully realized Sith, anyway.” He clenches a fist. “I still think I should have tried harder.”

Cody had read some of those reports, but hadn’t known it was Vos. They’d been redacted to functionally reveal kark-all. “Sounds like if you’d tried any harder, you would have died, General,” Cody says.

“Or worse,” Obi-Wan adds.

Vos meets Cody’s eyes. “You’re right. But it might have been worth it,” he says, and then waves a hand. “It doesn’t matter, though, because it didn’t happen, and now we have to deal with a two-million-person minefield.”

Obi-Wan nods. “I’ve contacted most of the other Jedi on the Council, and I called Flask and Kix in here for a debrief on the chips hours ago. I haven’t gotten ahold of Anakin yet, but I had them start on dechipping the 212th and 501st. Kix volunteered to encode a message to other medics about it without tripping anyone’s radar.” He quirks a smile. “We’ve been making great use of the fact that this medbay is a complete blackbox. Ordinarily, we use it for the treatment of Jedi sensitive to electronic signals.” Then his face goes stormy again. “Now, we’re using it to make plans in one of the few places we know the Sith cannot overhear us.”

“The chips are coded to Palpatine and Palpatine alone, so we can’t disable them remotely,” Vos explains. “I’ve thrown all my tricks at the one that was in your head, but this thing is basically impenetrable. The only way to get rid of it is removal.” He winces. “Or, I guess, sticking activated troopers in Jan’nai’s Door until they can be subdued, but for obvious reasons we aren’t doing that. But if the medics work quickly enough, we can dechip the entire GAR in less than a ten-day.”

Cody digests this. He lets himself feel pure rage for one moment and one moment only, and then breathes it out on a long exhale. He’s been asleep for twelve hours, and his brothers need him. Obi-Wan needs him. There’s work to do.

“All right,” he says. “So the clones are a trap for the Jedi. Palpatine is either in league with a Sith, in which case he needs to be arrested and interrogated, or he _is_ a Sith, in which case I assume we’re all karked unless we come up with a beskar-solid contingency plan. He activated my chip to get to you, probably to cause chaos or because he somehow knew we’d run into Fives. Or for a reason we can't see yet. And the only way to disarm the bomb is to dechip everyone as close to simultaneously as possible without him finding out that it’s happening and activating us early. Dechipping has already started, but it’s being kept confidential.” He pauses. “Did I get everything? Also, does he know we’re both alive? And Fives?”

“Fives is still officially missing, so the Guard is still looking for him,” Vos says. “He’s with Windu now. But I shot down a probe droid that may have caught your fight, so either Palpatine already knows, or some lucky holojournalist knows and Palpatine will know soon enough.”

Cody gives in to the urge to drag a hand over his face, but then nods. “Then we can assume he knows we’re alive. But does he know that we know about the chips?”

Obi-Wan shakes his head. “I’ve asked Shaak to play convinced by the Kaminoans’ arguments that the chips are there to tone down aggression. They’re saying that Tup, whose chip started all this mess with Fives, had some sort of parasite, and that Fives has it, too. So far, the Chancellor seems to accept that the Jedi think the chip is a good thing.”

Cody lets his head fall back against the wall. “That’s something, at least. You’ve been busy while I was asleep, General. Now all we need to do is organize brain surgery for two million men and arrest the leader of the Republic.”

Vos smirks. “Easy.” 

“Thank you for your vote of confidence, Quinlan,” Obi-Wan says dryly. “Unfortunately, we can’t arrest and interrogate him without a reason. Proving he was a traitor to the Republic would take time, which would mean more time spent at war and more time for him to realize we’ve discovered the true nature of the chips. Of course, we could use the chips themselves as proof, but then he’ll almost certainly activate anyone who hasn’t been dechipped.”

Cody blinks. “We don’t need to use the chips,” he says, and fumbles open his vambrace on the arm that doesn’t have an IV in it. “I turned on the internal recording in my wristcomm when I was talking to Palpatine, before he triggered the order. It only has two hours of memory, so it probably shut off while I was out, but it would have caught everything from the order through the fight.”

Obi-Wan gives him a delighted grin. “Cody, you brilliant man,” he says. “Once we dechip the Guard, that recording will be enough to call off the hunt for Fives, and to justify an operation to arrest Palpatine. If he is a Sith Lord, it’ll take at least six Jedi to ensure he doesn’t escape, and we’d still have Dooku to deal with. But that could mean the war will finally—”

He cuts himself off because the door opens, and General Windu walks in with a thunderous expression. Fives trails in after him, removing his helmet and throwing Cody a salute tight enough that Cody's immediately on edge.

“The Chancellor just commed the Council to show us footage of Master Kenobi fighting his Marshal Commander,” Windu says. “We don’t know how he got it. Palpatine is demanding some sort of accountability.”

“Palpatine can go and—” Vos is interrupted by Obi-Wan putting a hand over his mouth.

“What did he say?” Obi-Wan asks, ignoring Vos’ glare.

Windu flicks a glance at Cody, who stays stone-faced. “Ordinarily, clones who are considered ‘defective’ get sent back to Kamino for treatment,” he says. Cody could swear the very air in the room freezes for a second. “But instead, Palpatine wants to put Commander Cody on trial.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mando'a: 
> 
> vod – brother  
> vode – brothers  
> ori’vod – older brother  
> osik – shit  
> jetii – Jedi  
> dar’jetii – Sith  
> jare’la jetii – reckless Jedi  
> shabuir – jackass  
> haar'chak - damn it
> 
> ...I want you all to know that the intended ending of this chapter would have been a _worse_ cliffhanger, but then it ran very long, so I cut it off here instead. I haven't decided yet whether that was a kindness or not.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, everyone! Sorry this is quite literally a month later than I thought it would be, but in my defense, this fic is also… 20k longer than I thought it would be. So. As you also may have noticed, the chapter count has been increased to 5. Chapter 5 is an epilogue, so it will be shorter at about 5k, but chapters 3 and 4 came out uhhh quite long, at about 9-10k each. Consistent wordcount? I don’t know her. All the chapters are now written and in the process of being finalized, so I will be posting the last two chapters over the next couple weeks as I finish the final-final edits. 
> 
> Also, mind the updated tags. This chapter contains a brief, nongraphic description of a panic attack. To skip it, skip from the paragraph starting “The holo blinks out” down to “His breathing evens out.” Also, general warning for Palpatine-related.... everything.
> 
> That’s all. Enjoy the ride!

Obi-Wan swears so viciously and extensively that even Fives looks impressed.

“The way he put Ahsoka on trial?” Obi-Wan bites out. “With Tarkin and the rest playing judge, jury, and executioner?”

Cody risks knocking their shoulders together, and Obi-Wan visibly releases his anger and settles into familiar stubbornness.

“As Chancellor, he has the power to demand it. Also, if we refuse, he could suspect we know about the chips. We’ve only just gotten started dechipping the 104th and 327th, not to mention all the others we haven’t gotten messages to yet. We need time. And you’re out of line, Obi-Wan,” Windu says mildly.

Obi-Wan meets Windu’s gaze. “You’re right, and I apologize. I am not angry with you, but with the circumstances. But Mace, we can’t play his game. We need to find some other way to stall.”

“I am open to suggestions. And it is, of course, the Commander’s choice. A trial would buy us a few days,” Windu says.

We need those days, he doesn’t say. Cody hears it, anyway.

Obi-Wan makes a sharp gesture. “By putting a target directly on Cody’s head! The risk is too high, especially if Palpatine realizes Cody’s chip is gone. We _know_ people have been killed in those holding cells, they aren’t secure at all. And if the Chancellor is a direct line to the Sith, Cody is a loose end,” Obi-Wan says. “You’re asking him to walk into a deadly trap without any backup.”

Needless to say, Cody has walked into plenty of traps before. But not without Obi-Wan or his brothers.

Windu tilts his head. Obi-Wan stares back at him, crossing his arms.

Cody watches the battle of wills and lets himself feel the warmth of Obi-Wan’s defense only for another heartbeat, before packing it away with an internal sigh. He knows duty, he breathes it. He has two million brothers relying on him, two million brothers who could lose themselves in an instant, the way he did.

Over his dead karking body.

Obi-Wan is still silent at Cody’s side, jaw set in that way that means he’s dug in for the long haul.

“General,” Cody says quietly, cutting through the tension. “He’s right. It’ll buy us time. We need Palpatine to think he’s winning. He might give more away. I can handle myself for a few days in solitary.”

Obi-Wan turns away from Windu to look at him like he’s searching for answers Cody doesn’t have. “Cody, I—” Obi-Wan cuts himself off, then forges through. “There has to be another way.”

Cody meets his gaze, steady. “My people are more important than my life.”

A series of emotions flicker lightning-quick across Obi-Wan’s features. Cody realizes he needs to catalogue as many as he can, because he isn’t sure how much longer he’ll have to do it. How many memories he needs to stock up.

The desperation in Obi-Wan’s eyes is going to kill him. “ _Ni n’echoyli gar, Kote_ ,” Obi-Wan says, and puts a careful hand on Cody’s own.

Windu looks blank, but Vos raises an eyebrow and Fives looks like he’s been hit with a blunt object.

‘You won’t lose me,’ Cody wants to say, but that’s not a promise he can make.

“Trust me,” Cody says instead, because he knows Obi-Wan already does. “Please.”

Obi-Wan, he doesn’t add. Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan. He’s never been closer to saying it out loud. He wishes he had been braver earlier, but maybe it isn’t too late.

Obi-Wan looks like he wants to say more, but relents after one last pleading look that almost breaks Cody’s resolve. “Fine,” Obi-Wan says. “But I don’t like it.”

Cody forces a smile. “Just get me out before they send in the firing squad, yeah?”

“Just don’t die before we can get you out, then, _vod_ ,” Fives says.

“Please don’t plan what is still technically treason in a language I can understand, at least,” Windu says, jerking Cody’s attention away from where Obi-Wan’s hand is warm in his. Obi-Wan defiantly tightens his grip.

“It won’t be treason by the time we go through with it,” Obi-Wan points out. “And hopefully it won’t get to that point.”

Windu rolls his eyes. “We’ll have a rotation of Jedi and dechipped men assigned to keep Commander Cody company day and night. If Palpatine’s logic is that he attacked one of our own, he can’t object to having both Jedi and troopers on guard. I know this doesn’t make anything easier, but I share your concerns about how much danger the Commander is in,” he says, and then mutters something that sounds suspiciously like, ‘though not in the same way.’

“General, how much time exactly will a trial buy?” Cody asks, doing mental math. How much time will they need to dechip everyone? Vos had said under a ten-day, but that’s a long time to maintain a pretty kriffing extreme risk level. Even at maximum efficiency, if they can get all the medbays on all the ships going constantly, it’ll probably be six or seven days.

Windu rubs at his forehead, exhaustion showing through before he dismisses it. “At the speed Palpatine wants to move, probably one day from when you’re taken into custody, which Palpatine is angling to do sooner rather than later,” Windu says. “Maybe two or three at a stretch, if we can get you a real lawyer who can stall. Palpatine may send the Guard to arrest you as soon as tonight, which seems like it would fit how our luck’s been running lately.”

“Senator Amidala might do it,” Fives suggests.

Obi-Wan nods. “You’re right, Fives. In fact, she’ll probably volunteer as soon as she hears,” he says. “So we can optimistically say three days.”

“There are two million clones and we’ve only dechipped about six thousand since Obi-Wan explained the situation to us,” Windu says. “Once we get encrypted messages to everyone in the field, things will move faster, but we’ll also have to extract anyone who’s on mission without Palpatine noticing any extra movement. The logistics alone add at least a day, and a single badly-timed report would mean we’d have to come up with an explanation for the Chancellor before he triggers the order.”

Fierfek, they still need more time. But maybe—maybe he’s got a way out.

“Generals,” Cody says. “Was the chip voice-activated?”

Vos looks sharply at him. “As far as I can tell, yeah,” he says. “Something about the words ‘Execute Order 66’ was hardwired in, along with more than a hundred other orders, ranging from horrifying to even more horrifying.”

He’ll need to see those orders, and soon. “Three days isn’t enough to dechip everyone,” Cody says. “But three days could be enough to organize a total comms blackout. Even for the teams that would need to be extracted first.”

“No comms would mean no voice-activated order,” Obi-Wan says, realization in his eyes. He’s giving Cody the same look as earlier, when Cody had said he’d taped Palpatine. Like Cody has performed a miracle just by existing. There’s not a lot Cody wouldn’t do for that look.

“Having all the battalions that haven’t been dechipped on-ship at the same time could look like a coincidence,” Vos says, catching on.

“And no voice-activated order means no sword hanging over our heads, as long as we time it right,” Windu agrees. “Thank you, Commander. Good thinking.”

Fives puts his helmet on and clears his throat. “Should we get started on organizing that now, sirs?”

“Take this, too, and make a copy,” Cody says, and takes the recording chip out of his wristcomm to hand it to Fives. “That should have Palpatine giving the order.”

On autopilot, he swaps in a blank from the other vambrace. Kark, he misses the rest of his own armor, but at least it’s safe in Obi-Wan’s quarters in the Temple.

Windu nods. “Thank you, Commander. With me, ARC Trooper. Let’s go see what we can do.” He looks to each of them in turn. “Kenobi, Vos, Commander. Good luck.”

He and Fives leave, and Vos shakes his head. “Kenobi, make sure they never actually make me a General. I don’t envy you two the reports you’ll have to fill out after all of this,” he says, wrinkling his nose.

Obi-Wan looks amused at the look of horror that must be on Cody’s face, so Cody immediately wipes it clean, raising an eyebrow. To tell the truth, he hadn’t even contemplated how many datafiles this mess will take up when it’s over.

Obi-Wan’s lips twitch like he knows it. “If you like, you can get a head start now, while we wait for more information about this farce of a trial,” Obi-Wan says. “You won’t get a signal in here, but you can load any forms you like in the hall.”

“Thank you, General, you know how much I love filling out forms,” Cody says with his face deliberately blank, and then sighs, pinches the bridge of his nose. “I probably should see if Rex has tried to get in touch, though, if you haven’t been able to reach General Skywalker.”

Obi-Wan stands, offering him a hand, and Cody takes it to pull himself up, trying not to wince at how everything hurts. He thinks next time he’d rather pick a fight with a tank than with that magic door. And two Jedi, and Fives.

As soon as they step into the hall, Cody’s comm starts beeping. They all still.

“It’s the Chancellor,” he says.

“He must have had a comm line waiting to go through,” Vos says. “Come on, we need to get into the other medbay. The one that has a locking door and isn’t a blackbox.”

Cody has to answer it and be—empty. Controlled. He has to lie to the Chancellor, who is possibly a _dar’jetii_ about to destroy the Jedi and definitely a maniac who can brainwash Cody’s brothers. Who did brainwash Cody. Who probably wants to kill every single person Cody has ever loved.

“Cody,” Obi-Wan says, and brings Cody back to himself. He’s followed Obi-Wan through the door across the hall on muscle memory.

“He doesn’t know my chip is gone,” Cody says. Everything had gone fuzzy at the edges for a moment, but it’s clear now. “He _can’t_ know my chip is gone.”

Obi-Wan meets Cody’s eyes, hand warm on his shoulder. “Perhaps we confiscated your wristcomm,” Obi-Wan says. You don’t have to answer, Cody hears.

“The only way out is through, General,” Cody says. Thank you for the lie, he doesn’t say.

Obi-Wan presses down once, nods, and draws away.

Cody steels himself, making himself as blank as he can as Obi-Wan moves to stand with Vos. Obi-Wan had tried to teach them all at least the basics of shielding, but Cody had gotten farther. Tano had said his shields were Jedi-strength. He’s going to need that.

Besides that, he’s a karking Marshal Commander, he tells himself. He can work through fear, and pain, and everything the galaxy has seen fit to throw at the 212th in the last three years.

He needs to do this, for his brothers.

He makes sure the comm will only catch him, turns on the internal recording for the second time in as many days, and answers the call.

“CC-2224 reporting, my Lord.”

“CC-2224, are you in a secure location?”

“Yes, my Lord,” Cody says. He’s a blank slate, he thinks. He’s got no cards to show Palpatine. He has no cards at all. “I’ve escaped the traitors’ holding cell. I await further instructions.”

“Very good, CC-2224. I have heard that you failed to kill Kenobi,” Palpatine says. “But I suppose pitting only one clone against a Jedi like him was bound to be a fruitless experiment. I’m surprised you survived at all, but of course, Kenobi would never kill a _friend._ ”

Cody feels something creeping up his neck, and resolutely shows nothing on his face. He’d never gotten close enough to Dooku to get Force-choked, but he’s heard enough about it that he suspects he’s about to find out what it feels like. Seconds go by, and he finds it more and more difficult to breathe.

“But you should know, CC-2224, that I do not tolerate failure.”

“Yes, Chancellor,” Cody manages. A few more long moments. He can hold his breath for longer than human standard, the Kaminoans had made sure of that, but he doesn’t know how long he can keep the animal panic of a restricted airway off his face. His vision is going dark around the edges. He can’t cut through it, can’t move at all.

But the sensation disappears far more abruptly than it had started.

“You’ve done such a good job causing confusion, it would be a shame if you ruined your own work. I think you can do more for me.”

Palpatine smiles a horrible smile, and Cody feels the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

He’s an empty space. A still pool of water. He’s not afraid of Palpatine, because fear would show that he’s a person and not just a tool under Palpatine’s control. He wipes his mind clean. Refuses to feel anything at all.

“I believe the next time I see you will be in person, CC-2224,” Palpatine says. “Cancel Order 66. Initiate Order 5 operating procedure and Order 7 confidentiality protocol. Stand by for further instructions.”

The holo blinks out, but all Cody can hear is a rushing in his ears. His heart is racing, and he registers dimly that Obi-Wan has come back to his side and is pulling him along back into the blackbox. He’s moving, he’s sitting in a chair. His limbs aren’t really responding to him.

But there had been a moment just then when he’d been absolutely certain he was going to die, breath cut off in the middle of the Temple. More certain than he’s ever been, and he’s come pretty karking close a few times.

“Breathe for me, Cody,” Obi-Wan says, and he realizes that he’s barely taking in air. He suspects if he tried to use a blaster now, his hands might be shaky for the first time in his life. He’s not going to test that.

“Cody,” Obi-Wan says again, and Cody inhales, counts off, and exhales again—they’d all been taught to manage shock, pain, fear, to fight through it all. He’s fine, he thinks. He’s _fine._

His breathing evens out, and so does his heartbeat. Obi-Wan takes his hands from Cody’s face. Cody hadn’t even really registered they were there.

“All right, I really, really hate that guy,” Vos says.

“I think we all share that sentiment,” Obi-Wan says, still looking at Cody. “Are you all right, Cody?”

Cody takes another slow breath. His hands are steady enough now, and he pops out the recording chip in his vambrace for the second time today, handing it to Vos. “I think I should have stayed in the blackbox,” Cody says wryly. “But I’ll be fine, General.”

“You’re committed to the role, now, Commander,” Vos says, not unkindly.

“As long as he isn’t going to choke me again,” Cody says.

“He choked you?” Obi-Wan asks, alarmed.

Cody hadn’t let it show, and his fear must have bled into everything else. “I’m fine now.”

Obi-Wan is still tense the way he always is before jumping in front of Cody in the field, worry and—something else—etched into his brow. “Somehow, that assertion doesn’t make me any less concerned,” Obi-Wan says.

Cody dredges up a half-smile for him. “He only choked me a little bit. I’m all right, really.”

“Oh, good,” Vos mutters. “There’s two of you, now.”

Obi-Wan ignores him. “Cody,” he says, and then pauses, looking at him helplessly.

“You can’t always be the one to spring the trap,” Cody tells him, gentle.

Obi-Wan’s expression goes mutinous before he sighs, and deflates. “I know,” Obi-Wan says. He visibly gathers himself, and glances at Vos. “I don’t suppose manipulating the Force through a comm signal is somehow an ordinary Dark Side talent, is it?”

Vos makes a face. “Well, ‘ordinary’ definitely isn’t the word I’d use. Even ‘only a bit’ of choking shouldn’t be possible from that distance,” Vos says. “Dooku can’t use the Force like that. Nobody can.”

“I thought not,” Obi-Wan says, frowning.

Vos’ mouth is a thin line. “The Chancellor has to be the Sith Master.”

Cody _really_ hadn’t wanted to be right about that.

Obi-Wan closes his eyes for only a moment, rocking back ever-so-slightly as if buffeted by an unseen storm, and Cody sees him put it aside and refocus. He turns to Cody, musters a grin for him. “I don’t suppose the increased risk changes your mind about playing bait?”

Cody raises an eyebrow. “Not your best effort, General,” he says. “But even if it had been, you know my answer wouldn’t change.”

“I know,” Obi-Wan says quietly, and Cody—Cody can’t look at him right now.

He throws himself back into the plan. Order 5 and Order 7, he thinks. He’s doing this for his brothers. For Obi-Wan. “You have that list of the orders encoded on the chip, sir?” he asks Vos, who’s been watching the two of them with a shrewd expression.

Vos pulls out a datapad and taps it a few times, before handing it over wordlessly.

“Order 5, for use in hostile territory. Avoid attention. Act as expected by those around you. Order 7, for use in enemy territory and under interrogation. Communication limited to rank and unit number. All other communication prohibited,” Cody reads, and then keeps reading the rest in silence.

Horrifying and even more horrifying, Vos had said.

It had been an understatement.

When he flicks a glance up, Obi-Wan has that look of glacial calm that Cody has seen only twice and never especially wanted to see again. “You never got to the details, Vos. What are the other orders?” he asks. He’s not the Jedi Master, now. He’s Cody’s General.

“We don’t have time to run through them all,” Vos says carefully. “The Commander needs to read them.”

Cody’s a fast reader. He doesn’t like anything he sees.

“What are the other orders, Vos?” Obi-Wan asks again, as Cody tastes more and more ash in his mouth.

A beat. “Ask me again after all this is over,” Vos says. “Commander Cody’s fine, Obi-Wan. He’s got the chip out. We’re getting all the chips out.”

Cody finishes, closes the program with numb fingers. “I’m going to kill him,” he says evenly. It’s a statement of fact. It’s treason, and premeditated murder, and Cody will see it done.

Obi-Wan blinks back to himself and puts a hand on Cody’s shoulder. He opens his mouth to respond, but the door opens before he can, and Obi-Wan’s mouth shuts with a click as he pulls on Jedi calm like a cloak.

“Hello, Anakin,” he says. “You’re late.”

Skywalker is craning his neck to look back at something in the hall, distracted. “Hey, Obi-Wan. Was that—” Skywalker says, and then shakes his head and swivels back to face them. “Never mind. I, uh, ran into Fox and the Coruscant Guard at the Temple gates, and they said they’re here to arrest Cody?” His voice tilts up at the end, as if it’s a question.

“Kid, you truly have the worst timing of anyone I’ve ever met, and I’ve known Obi-Wan here since we were seven standard,” Vos says. He sounds almost admiring.

Skywalker raises his hands defensively. “Hey, I’m just the messenger,” he says. “But can someone tell me why they’re arresting Cody, and why we’re going along with it?”

Cody feels his own lips twitch. Skywalker’s attitude pisses him off, sure, but any brother would approve of how loyal the man is to his people. Obi-Wan is one of his people, and he’s clearly categorized Cody as one of Obi-Wan’s.

Obi-Wan raises an eyebrow. “Perhaps if you’d picked up your comm, you would have been caught up earlier.”

Skywalker scratches the back of his head sheepishly. “Sorry, Obi-Wan.”

Obi-Wan waves him off. “Find Rex and bring him back here. I’ll read you both in.”

“Yeah, all right,” Skywalker says. “But we aren’t actually handing Cody over, right?”

“Only temporarily,” Cody says. Even Windu hadn’t anticipated an arrest quite so immediately, but if Palpatine has plans for him, it makes sense that he’d want Cody where he’s a sitting target as soon as possible.

Obi-Wan smiles with all his teeth. “I plan to ensure it is as temporary as possible,” Obi-Wan says.

Skywalker looks between them suspiciously, but nods. “I’ll be back with Rex. Good luck with, uh, whatever it is you’re planning on doing, Commander.”

He leaves. Vos glances at Obi-Wan, and then Cody. “I think that’s my cue. I can go and hold off the Guard for a few minutes,” Vos says. “And—good luck.”

He steps out, and then it’s just Cody, Obi-Wan, and the jaws of the trap closing around them.

Cody takes a breath, takes a risk. “Obi-Wan,” he says, and then finds he has nothing to add to the sound of finally saying it out loud. Refuses to think about whether he’ll ever get another chance.

Obi-Wan just looks at him for a long moment. “If only I’d known that all it takes for you to drop formality is a galactic crisis,” Obi-Wan says, voice hoarse with something neither of them are naming. “I’m sorry, Cody.”

Cody glances at him sidelong. “For what?”

Obi-Wan cracks a smile. “Would you like a list? For not seeing this plot sooner. For not fighting harder for you and your brothers. For all the death I could have prevented but did not. For you being forced into this position because of me. For not being able to protect you. For asking you to walk into danger alone. I could keep going.”

“Don’t,” Cody says. “You know almost all of that’s not your fault, and I’ve already forgiven you for the rest.”

“I know,” Obi-Wan says. “But I am sorry nonetheless.”

 _Jare’la jetii_ , Cody thinks again. “You’re forgiven,” Cody says. “Nonetheless.”

“ _Cody_ ,” Obi-Wan says. “Just—be careful, please. _K’oyacyi, Kote_ _. Akay ni slana’at gar_.”

It’s the closest either of them have ever come to naming this thing between them, and Cody feels a pulse of fury. Maybe Obi-Wan catches the lash of it, because he opens his mouth to say something more, but Cody shakes his head and he closes it.

Every day could have been the last day, but somehow he’d kept thinking that they would have more time. More time filling out reports side by side, more time getting horrible caf in the middle of ship’s night, more time letting Obi-Wan drag him to the best hole-in-the-wall on Coruscant for Rylothian noodles. More time fighting together, moving in perfect synchronicity. More time.

“Don’t tell me now,” Cody says. “Please.”

He already knows, he’d known before this even without confirmation, he’d just thought they would have more _time_.

But the clock’s run out.

“All right, Cody. I won’t tell you now,” Obi-Wan agrees, voice soft. “But live, so I can tell you after.”

Survive this, for me, because I am asking you to, Cody hears. Off the field, Obi-Wan never orders. He only ever asks.

“I’ll try,” Cody says, and he will. It’s all he can do.

-

Windu sends him back to Kenobi after they see Cody, head held high, handcuffed and led out of the Temple by Fox’s men, and Fives slips back into the medbay that has become their temporary headquarters while Kenobi is in the middle of a sentence, getting a quick glance of acknowledgement from the Jedi as he removes his helmet.

Rex notices him before General Skywalker does, doing a doubletake and then shooting a confused look at Kenobi.

“…and hello, Fives,” Kenobi says, and then Skywalker turns and boggles at him.

“General Skywalker, Captain Rex,” Fives says, and fires off his sharpest salute.

He feels like maybe he should try a winning grin, but it probably wouldn’t come out right. Even Windu had cursed at the sight of Cody being marched down the Temple stairs surrounded by Guardsmen like he’s done something wrong, like any of this is on him.

Vos had been trailing, one hand on his lightsaber. Following Cody right into the detonation chamber they were all trying to disarm. Fives clenches his fingers into a fist, and then forces himself to unclench it.

He knows this is the plan, but he really karking hates the plan.

A long silence. “You’ve stirred up one hell of a mess, Fives,” Rex says at last.

Fives considers this. “That’s true, sir,” he says.

Kenobi smiles faintly. “It was a mess that needed stirring,” he says.

Skywalker looks him up and down. “You don’t look very on-the-run for a missing man.”

“I was kind of assuming you wouldn’t be turning me in, sir,” Fives says.

Skywalker gives him a lopsided grin. “We won’t be,” he says. “Although I’m having a disagreement with Obi-Wan about what to do about the Chancellor, so maybe you can tell me your version of events?”

Fives glances at Rex, who rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I’ve got my chip out,” Rex says. “Kix dragged me into medbay earlier claiming he needed to do a routine checkup and filled me in on some of it after sedating me for a bit of minor brain surgery.” He pauses, tilts his head. “Heard you got up-close and personal with Cody when he was out of his mind.”

“I did,” Fives says, and winces. “Can’t say I came out on top in that one.”

“Even though he was mind-controlled? Embarrassing, _vod_ ,” Rex says.

Kenobi, watching the interplay, runs a hand over his beard to hide the smirk Fives is somehow sure is there. “As Quinlan said, Cody is a very talented close-combat fighter,” he says. “Of course, he’s much better when he’s himself.”

“He spin-kicks droids when he’s himself,” Rex says.

“Terrifying, sirs,” Fives says. “Thank you for the nightmares.”

“The Chancellor?” Skywalker presses, bringing him back to the situation.

Fives blows out a breath. “The Chancellor,” he agrees. “What has General Kenobi told you?”

“That he thinks the Chancellor is a Sith Lord,” Skywalker says, doubt clear in his voice. “Personally, I think he’s probably just being controlled by one, and this isn’t his fault. He’s always been a good man.”

Fives keeps his distaste from showing on his face, and is thankful for a moment that Cody and Kenobi found him before he went to Rex and Skywalker. Skywalker’s a good General and Fives would follow him through a lot of _osik_ , but the man’s never been able to see the flaws in his friends.

Sith Lord or not, being an aspiring mass murderer is a big enough karking flaw for Fives to have made his mind up.

“No matter whether he is one or if he’s being controlled by one, we must operate with utmost caution because we know that any information that Palpatine has, the Sith will have, one way or another,” Kenobi says. “I know you’re fond of the man, Anakin, but even the best possible option still entails him being puppeteered by whoever _is_ the Sith Lord.”

Skywalker huffs. “I know, I know,” he says. “But what happened, Fives? Give me the short version.”

The short version, Fives thinks. Right. He takes a deep breath. “After Tup killed General Tiplar, I followed him to Kamino and commandeered a med-droid to look in his head when the Kaminoans indicated that they planned to decommission him. After running scans on Tup and myself, I found an anomaly—an inhibitor chip in the same place in both of our brains. Tup’s had decayed and activated on its own, but mine hadn’t. I had the droid take it out and went to check the tube bays. I needed to know whether it was in all of us.”

“And it was,” Rex says, jaw clenched.

Fives nods. “I approached General Ti with what I’d found, and she said she’d take me to Coruscant to get an audience with the Chancellor. But on the way here, one of the Kaminoan scientists who insisted on coming with us injected me with some sort of drug which slowed my reaction time, impaired my thinking, and hurt like—well, it really karking hurt, sirs. If you’ll pardon my language.”

If Fives didn’t know better, he’d say Kenobi looks like he’s laughing at him. “Pardoned, Fives.”

“I was brought in to see the Chancellor, and he dismissed everyone but me. Then he told me—” Fives breaks off, then continues. “He told me that the chips were intended for his ‘ _use_ ,’ that I’d been very clever and caused him a lot of trouble.”

“That’s when you tried to kill him?” Skywalker asks, eyes flinty.

Kenobi puts a hand on his shoulder. “Anakin.”

I wish I had tried and karking succeeded, Fives wants to say, but Echo, that hypocrite, had always gone on about ‘discretion,’ so he holds it in. “Then he said that I’d outlived my usefulness to the Republic,” he says. “That’s when I shoved him off and made a run for it when he called in the Guard. I was planning on tracking down you and Captain Rex, sir, but Commander Cody and General Kenobi found me first, stumbling around the lower levels and trying to lie low. You probably know the rest.”

Skywalker waves his non-organic hand. “They brought you back here, gave you an antidote to whatever you got dosed with, Cody got a comm from the Chancellor and went insane and tried to kill all of you, you knocked him out and dechipped him, started dechipping the 212th and 501st, Cody woke up and then the Chancellor sent men to arrest him so he can stand trial for trying to kill Obi-Wan.”

“That’s the long and short of it, General.”

“You have to admit, sir,” Rex says slowly. “It doesn’t look good for the Chancellor.”

Skywalker blows out a breath. “I just think there’s been some sort of misunderstanding. If the Chancellor’s being controlled by the Sith, he must be so afraid—if I could just go to him and break the control, we could find out what’s really going on and how this all started.”

“Anakin, you can’t,” Kenobi says firmly. “First of all, if he is being controlled, we don’t know how or by what or how to break the mechanism without harming him. Secondly, whether or not he is the Sith himself, we must assume anything he knows, the Sith will know. If the Sith know, they can and will take control of all the troops we have not yet been able to dechip, which is most of them. We’ll lose the vast majority of the army and every Jedi on the ground with troops around them. We cannot allow that.”

“I know,” Skywalker says sourly. “Prepare for the worst. But for the record, I don’t think Palpatine could do something like that.”

“Your faith is noted,” Kenobi says.

And ignored, Fives thinks wryly, trading a glance with Rex. Kenobi had seen it, Vos had seen it clearly and immediately. Skywalker’s the only one who seems determined not to see it—but that’s fine. Kenobi can make sure he doesn’t do anything karking crazy. Probably. Unless he and Skywalker both decide to do something karking crazy, together.

For his own sake, he’s going to hope that doesn’t happen.

“So what’s the plan, General?” Rex asks.

Kenobi sighs, looking like he’s aged a decade in the last hour. “We need to dechip the entire GAR. Two million troopers, moving as fast as we safely can, will take at least six to seven days to dechip. Cody pointed out that if we can get the whole fleet comms-dark simultaneously, the order won’t be a problem because nobody will pick up to receive it, and everyone left can be dechipped efficiently and safely. Masters Windu, Koon, and I have begun coordinating the comms blackout under the operation heading Moonset. However, in order to maintain opsec, we need to make it look like the troopers moving from shipside to planetside are in normal rotations, and not that we’re working to dechip everyone on ship before sending them to the ground. Which means we need time to dechip as many people as possible even before we go comms-dark, and to organize Moonset.” He winces. “Cody volunteered to buy us that time by going along with this mockery of a trial Palpatine has engineered.”

“He what?” Rex asks mildly. A mild Rex, Fives knows, is an extremely dangerous Rex.

Kenobi knows it too, from the rueful look he sends the Captain. “I didn’t much like the idea either. But he was insistent. Timed correctly, Moonset will begin simultaneously to the trial, and Palpatine won’t be able to stop it.”

Timed incorrectly, they’re karked. Kenobi doesn’t need to say it; they all know they’ve only got one shot at this.

Kenobi is still talking. “I commed Senator Amidala to see if she had any legal advice, and she immediately volunteered to be Cody’s advocate at trial.”

“You involved _Padmé_ —Senator Amidala in this?” Skywalker asks. “In a fight with a Sith Lord?”

Kenobi raises an eyebrow at him. “She involved herself in this. As you may recall, she also advocated for Ahsoka. I warned her of the risks.”

Skywalker takes a deep breath, and unclenches his jaw. “Fine,” he says. “I’ll escort her to see him. Anything else I should know?”

Kenobi looks at him searchingly, and then nods. “Palpatine is under the impression that Cody is still being influenced by the chip, and that we think the chip is a good thing. I cannot protect him in the cell because it would be too suspicious, as he nominally attempted to kill me—”

“Nominally?” Fives mutters.

“—And I am needed here to coordinate Moonset,” Kenobi continues without missing a beat. “Quinlan went to play prison guard in case there are any attempts on Cody’s life while he’s a sitting target. Anakin, I would appreciate if you could trade off with Quin later today. There is no one I trust more than you to protect—I need to know that—” Kenobi falters, and then continues, meeting Skywalker’s eyes. “I am trusting you to protect someone who is important to me.”

“Oh,” Skywalker says, blinking. “I—yeah, Obi-Wan. I can do that.”

Kenobi’s shoulders lose some of their tension. “Thank you. Rex, Fives, I know this is an extremely unusual mission, but I could use your assistance to coordinate Moonset, as well.”

Rex nods. “Lead on, General. Let’s get this done and get Cody back.”

-

Cody had never particularly wanted to be familiar with the Guard’s holding cells, but at least he’s pretty sure Fox won’t remember tossing him in here. He certainly hadn’t acted like the Fox that had thrown a datapad at Cody when Cody had dared set foot in his domain less than two days ago.

Fox had always been a tetchy bastard, but there had been something downright eerie about a squad in red escorting him to holding in total silence. If all Palpatine wanted was to sow chaos in the ranks for whatever reason, he’d certainly achieved that by marching Cody through the streets of Coruscant in the middle of the karking day. Cody can only hope Boil hasn’t heard or that Obi-Wan has managed to dissuade him from full-on mutiny.

But Fox and the Guard will be a problem, and probably not one the Generals have registered yet.

The Guard is too close to the Chancellor, and Cody’s pretty sure Fox has a few of those contingency orders active. There’ll be no dechipping Fox or his men without alerting Palpatine, and if Palpatine knows, everything else goes up in smoke. He knows in his bones that this is going to turn into a firefight no matter how much they try to avoid one. Brothers against brothers, he thinks, pushing down the nausea.

He misses his desk in Obi-Wan’s quarters on the _Vigilance_. He’s never enjoyed having his back against the wall, but when he’s with Obi-Wan, there’s at least the certainty that both of them are going to be alive enough to walk out of whatever _osik_ they’ve stumbled into.

“Looks like you get to see a new face, Commander,” Vos calls from the hallway, breaking him out of his concentration.

The door opens and Senator Amidala walks in, closely followed by Skywalker. Looks like Fives had been right about her. Cody stands at attention.

“At ease, Commander,” Amidala says, waving a hand at the bench he’d been sitting on, and he cautiously sits back down. “We have a lot to talk about.”

Cody hopes someone has told her that he’s still pretending to be chipped, or this will be a very disappointing conversation for both of them.

She turns to the Guard troops who followed her and Skywalker into the room. “Gentlemen,” she says, brisk. “This is a confidential meeting between Commander Cody and his defense counsel—me. Please leave.”

The two Guards shrug at each other, and step out. Amidala turns to Skywalker, smiling briefly. “Unfortunately, that goes for you, too. If you are present in the room, that means waiving attorney-client privilege.”

“But what if something—”

“Anakin,” Amidala interrupts him, and points at the door. “Out.”

Cody hides a smile at Skywalker’s flummoxed expression.

“He means well,” Amidala says, flashing him a smirk. Then she pulls out a jammer box, clicking it on.

Does everyone have one of those in their back pocket? Cody wonders.

Amidala must see something in his expression, because her smile becomes more genuine. “Standard practice for attorney-client meetings. It’s not only legal, but encouraged,” she says.

“Glad to hear it,” Cody says. “Thank you, Senator. I don’t know how much General Kenobi told you, but this is a risky situation for everyone. I appreciate you sticking your neck out like this.”

“It’s the right thing to do,” Amidala says simply. “And he told me enough. This war always felt wrong to me, and the way you and your brothers are treated by the Republic—” she breaks off, shaking her head. “It’s outrageous. Master Kenobi felt it would be unsafe to explain the whole plan to me, but he told me the trial will be a distraction from an effort he hopes will end the war. And that without the jammer, you’d only say your name and registration number.” She pauses, reaches a hand out to touch his shoulder gently. “He showed me the holovids you recorded. I’m sorry you had to go through that, Commander. I can’t even imagine. I promise I will do what I can to help you.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Cody says, at a loss for anything else. It’s good that there are people like Amidala out there—makes him feel like maybe not all of this has been for nothing—but he’s a simple soldier. The earnest sympathy is nice, but he doesn’t know what to do with it.

She nods. “If this were a real trial, there would be a very easy case to be made in your defense. I’d introduce the recording and an intact chip as evidence, Master Kenobi would testify, and you’d be free to go,” Amidala says. “Unfortunately, the situation is complicated by circumstances.”

That’s putting it lightly, Cody thinks.

Amidala folds her hands in front of her. “Stop me if I hit on something incorrect, please. All natborn soldiers in the GAR are entitled to a trial before a military tribunal headed by an impartial magistrate. Clone troopers do not have that right, as you are not considered legal citizens of the Republic. Clones who can’t be treated shipboard are sent to Kamino for treatment. Rogue clones, from the very few examples I’ve found, are typically sent directly to the prison facility on Oovo IV.”

That’s where Dogma from the 501st had been sent after killing that _dar’jetii_ scum, Cody remembers. It’s where Fives would be sent, if he gets caught.

“However, I suspect there are three reasons that Palpatine has pushed for a trial. One, as one of the most high-profile clones in the war effort, there would be public backlash if it got out that you were being immediately sent to prison. Two, since Jedi Padawans also hold Commander rank, legally speaking it would be very difficult to argue that one Commander has greater due process rights than another without codifying your non-citizen status in a way that would be a step too far for even the sleaziest Senators, whose support Palpatine currently enjoys. So, he has to pay some lipservice to your legal rights to make himself look less like an autocrat. Three, Palpatine has the final say no matter what, and can bend the outcome to his liking, especially if he is who I think he is from Master Kenobi’s hedging. So Palpatine will make a show of it, instead,” Amidala says with a tight smile. “How’s my analysis so far?”

“Politically astute,” Cody says dryly.

Amidala laughs. “You sound like Master Kenobi. So, what have I missed?”

“The General said that if the Chancellor is what we think he is, his goal is to use chaos and confusion to gain power. Putting me on public trial is a distraction for the holonews if he wants to find and eliminate Fives, which he probably does. And enough brothers know me that a public trial rigged against me—no offense to your profession, ma’am—will put a lot of cracks into the GAR, especially if he could tell me what to say. We fight well when we trust each other, when we trust our Generals and the Republic. I don’t know what he’d make me say if he were still controlling me, but my bet is it wouldn’t be good for the Jedi.”

“It does seem likely. We have to assume he’ll twist anything you say to his own benefit regardless. But this could also be an opportunity. If the war is almost over, and he’s been behind both sides the entire time…” she trails off, getting a peculiar look on her face. “You’re right that this will be aired on every major holonews network.”

It clicks. Rex is going to karking kill him if Palpatine doesn’t manage it, but Amidala’s got a point. “I’m already putting a giant target on myself,” Cody says. “I may as well accuse him directly.”

“My thoughts exactly, Commander,” Amidala says, grinning. “The Chancellor wants a show, and we can give him a show. No need to obey the rules of criminal procedure. We play the holovid, and then you’ll stand up and tell your story. The _true_ story. This trial is a farce, anyway, we may as well turn the play to our advantage. I’ll do some polishing, but anyone can see how loyal you are to the Republic, to the Jedi. All you have to do is be honest.”

“I hear honesty doesn’t play well on the holocams.”

“Ordinarily, no,” she says. “But putting you up there across from a career politician who’s been accruing power to himself for three years and exposing him for trying to mind-control the entire GAR will create a made-for-the-holos contrast. The press will eat it up.”

Cody stares at her.

“You’ve also got tomorrow and the next day to write a compelling narrative,” she adds, an afterthought.

He puts the rest aside to focus on that. “You can get us three days?” he asks.

That’s as much as they’d dared hope for. It’s good to hear confirmation that they’ll have that—it might even be enough to prevent a total bloodbath if things don’t go to plan.

“I’ve already gotten three days, including today. Palpatine and Tarkin—who will once again be pretending to be a prosecutor for this—are pushing for an expedited trial to begin tomorrow, but I’ve talked them into early morning in two days’ time instead,” Amidala confirms. “They didn’t want me to do it through official channels and leave a record, and they know I would. I learned how to filibuster as Queen, but I learned how to manufacture court delays in law school.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Cody says, sincere.

She shakes her head at him. “Don’t thank me for doing what needs to be done, Commander.”

“A lot of beings wouldn’t see it that way, Senator,” Cody says. “So thank you, anyway.”

She rolls her eyes. “You’re welcome, then. Think about what you want to say, and I’ll be back the day after tomorrow to run through it. Is there anything you want me to pass along to Master Kenobi?”

“Tell General Kenobi I—” Cody starts, and then changes course. “Tell him Fox is compromised. And to be careful.”

Obi-Wan will know that Fox has to be on duty during the trial. The entire Guard is going to stand between the Chancellor and any justice, and they won’t have a choice about it.

“Fox?” Amidala asks, but then Skywalker’s voice approaches, and Amidala clicks off the signal jammer and tucks it into her sleeve.

She opens her mouth to say something else, before closing it abruptly, staring at Cody. She lifts a hand to her throat.

“Ma’am?” Cody quietly risks asking.

She stands, both hands at her throat now. It looks like she’s gasping, but not taking in air.

Cody swears, and leaps past the chair to catch her as she sways in place, and just as she starts gasping again, the door opens.

“Get away from her!” Skywalker’s voice snarls at him, and there’s the uncomfortable hum of a lightsaber too close to Cody’s neck for comfort. But Amidala holds tight to his shoulders, squeezing once before releasing him.

“Ani, no,” Amidala manages, coughing weakly. “He was helping me.”

The lightsaber sheathes itself. “Sorry, Commander,” Skywalker says.

Cody nods, and risks a glance over, and absolutely refuses to let himself freeze in shock at the figure who strolled in behind Skywalker. Order 5: act karking natural, he thinks grimly.

“How kind of you, Commander,” says Chancellor Palpatine.

“I’m afraid you won’t get him to talk to you, Chancellor,” Amidala says. “He’ll only say his name and rank, and besides, you don’t have attorney-client privilege.”

Cody has never been so grateful to a politician in his life.

“I’m simply here to try and understand why a man of such honor as Commander Cody would make an attempt on Master Kenobi’s life,” Palpatine says. He leans into Cody’s space, voice low and conspiratorial. “He didn’t—do anything to you, did he?”

Cody is a clean slate. He hadn’t prepared for this, but he’s blank, he’s blank, he’s blank. Obi-Wan had once told him that his shielding rivaled that of a trained Jedi, and he karking hopes that’s true, because the depth of hatred he feels right now would light up a thousand star destroyers.

How dare this man? Cody is going to rip him open with his bare hands.

Not yet. He’s waiting. He’s a blank space.

Palpatine leans back with a small smirk. “No, I suppose you wouldn’t say,” he says, turning to Amidala. “Are you well, my dear? You look a little shaky.”

“Just fine, Chancellor,” Amidala says smoothly. “Were you looking for me?”

“Padm—Senator, maybe the Chancellor is right,” Skywalker says, hovering over her. He must have completely missed what Palpatine said to Cody, or his tunnel vision is worse than Cody’d thought. “You don’t look so good.”

Your friend just kriffing choked her, Cody thinks pointedly, but doesn’t let it slip.

“Perhaps you should go get some water,” Palpatine suggests, and it’s laced with something that Cody can just feel the outer edges of, a strange wrongness.

Amidala puts a hand to her head, brow furrowing. “You might be right,” she says.

“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” Skywalker says, helping her to the door. “Chancellor, aren’t you coming?”

“I’m quite all right, my boy,” Palpatine says, smiling. “Do make sure the Senator is well. I’d like to speak with Commander Cody. Maybe I can give him some legal advice—I was quite the court advocate in my day, you know.”

Skywalker frowns. “I’m not sure that’s safe, Chancellor,” he says.

Palpatine waves a hand, careless. “The guards are right outside,” he says.

Skywalker tries again. Cody’ll give him credit for the effort, he thinks distantly, if he survives this. “But Chancellor—”

Palpatine smiles, grandfatherly and kind. “Don’t trouble yourself, Anakin. Go with Senator Amidala.”

That same—something threads through the room at his words, cloying and viscous, but Skywalker doesn’t seem to register it.

Skywalker’s eyes flicker to Cody once, but there’s no inconspicuous way for him to stay, and they both know it. If he puts up any more of a fight, Palpatine will notice something.

“I’ll send someone back in my place, Chancellor, you know I worry about you,” Skywalker says, and goes. 

And then Cody is alone with the man who would make him a droid.

He can make no recording this time; they stripped him of his borrowed armor and his wristcomm when he got booked. Palpatine could kill him now, and Skywalker wouldn’t walk back in until after it was done.

Cody doesn’t let any of that show on his face.

“Oh, Commander. You’ve been very useful,” Palpatine says. “And none of the Jedi have realized, of course. They always were blind. How is Kenobi taking it, I wonder? No matter. I expect he will be easy enough to take care of when he’s back with his beloved 212th, all wracked by grief over their Commander’s betrayal. You clones inspire such loyalty in one another.”

Cody says nothing. He’s featureless, like the blank armor he and Obi-Wan had borrowed. He reveals none of what’s below the surface.

A frown flashes across Palpatine’s face before his features go mild again. “You may speak freely, CC-2224.”

“Good soldiers follow orders,” he says evenly. He assumes that’s safe enough.

“Hm, and you are a good soldier, of course,” Palpatine says, a curl of amusement in his voice. “I had wondered what the effects of the chip would be without any standing orders beyond the confidentiality protocol. I admit I am slightly disappointed that it seems to have taken away that brilliant strategic mind Kenobi highlighted so charmingly in his reports.” He smirks. “I had to adjust some of my plans to account for you, you know. Very impressive, for a clone.”

Cody would have a hard time coming up with a response just now, so at least Palpatine doesn’t seem to expect one, because he sighs and continues.

“No matter. There are still some outstanding problems I believe you can help me take care of. If you fail in the following instructions, CC-2224, execute Order 14 immediately.”

Cody clamps down even harder on his thoughts. “Yes, sir,” he says.

Order 14 had been one of the suicide orders. There were about ten, modified for different circumstances. 14 was one of the simplest—total silence. Execution as soon as a weapon could be obtained.

“Very good,” Palpatine says, and withdraws a small metal sphere from his robes. “Do you know what this is, CC-2224?”

Cody does. “Experimental grenade, dorn-seven-cresh. Remote activation possible. Trackable. Not field tested.”

“Correct, Commander,” Palpatine says, holding it out to Cody, who has no choice but to take it. “You seem to have gotten it from Captain Rex in a misguided attempt to aid you in your treason. Isn’t that right?”

Rex must have his chip out by now. There can’t be a way for Palpatine to get to him. Rex has to be safe, all his brothers have to be safe, but Rex is his _vod’ika_ , Cody used to climb up and squeeze next to Rex in his bunk when they were cadets on days the trainers were too harsh, Rex still has that stupid holo of them and their generals coming off a month-long campaign looking like they’d all been surviving on stims for weeks, Rex is in the crosshairs of a monster and Cody can’t even warn him.

Cody can’t say any of that. He reinforces the door in his mind. Beskar, smooth and impenetrable. His mouth is dry. “Yes, sir,” he says. “I received this from Captain Rex.”

Palpatine’s eyebrows knit together in false pity. “The Captain seemed so loyal, too. Such a shame that everyone around General Skywalker is so fallible. I do hope Senator Amidala recovers from whatever ailed her earlier so she can continue to aid you in your trial.”

What is it, Cody wonders, with this man and Anakin karking Skywalker?

Palpatine is still talking. “You’ll have to leave a note to make clear that Captain Rex gave you this weapon, but I expect it will be simple enough for you to procure flimsiplast from the good Senator. Do so. She is a dutiful defense attorney, after all, I’m sure she’s asked you to communicate. You will bring the grenade with you into the chamber, and when the inner doors open and you step inside, you will be sure to detonate it within range of Senator Amidala.” Palpatine pauses, smiles. “Think of it as one last mission for the good of the Republic.”

“Yes, sir,” Cody says, because it’s all he can say.

“Very good. Now, I really must be on my way, it seems Anakin sent back a little friend in his stead and I oughtn’t put him off for long. Activate confidentiality protocol. As I keep telling you, CC-2224, it’s our goal in court to see justice done. We are all interested in a fair trial,” Palpatine says, and gives Cody one more bone-chilling smile before leaving.

The door closes and Cody slumps, thoughts racing.

There’s a key in Palpatine’s new orders, he knows it. All he has to do is find the lock.

Rex and Amidala. Smear Rex with Cody’s treason. Use Cody to kill Amidala and himself after using him to try and kill Obi-Wan. Cody’s death would hurt Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan could move past it to do what needs to be done, but Palpatine might think it could be enough of a distraction for Palpatine to do—whatever he wants to do. Whatever this is all _for_.

‘Such a shame that everyone around Skywalker is so fallible,’ he thinks, turning the words over.

Amidala, Rex, a sideswipe at Obi-Wan. Tano’s already gone, though he knows Rex has checked up on her once or twice through Amidala. If he’s remembering right, Palpatine and Tarkin had pushed for Tano to be executed. It had seemed pretty karking extreme even then, but with all these other pieces, the question comes back.

What the kriff does Palpatine want with Skywalker?

The door opens and Vos stumbles in, looking ill. “Sorry, Commander,” he says, voice low enough that the holocam won’t catch it. “I was on my way back, but the guards stopped me and when I checked the security feeds they were on the fritz, and then I lost close to half an hour of time between one blink and the next. By the time I came to, I had a code-aurek comm from Skywalker just telling me to get here. The feeds are back up but I don’t know what happened, the only time I’ve ever experienced that before was—” he cuts himself off, eyes widening in surprise before narrowing in fury and understanding.

Cody inclines his head. There’s no jammer here, not anymore, so he hopes Vos remembers to stick to yes-or-no questions.

Vos swears profusely, and leans over as if fixing the hem of his robe, but when he straightens up, he’s moved to mostly block Cody from the holocam in the room. Vos pulls out a piece of flimsi and a stylus, writing something and handing it to Cody.

_Can’t use a box here—interruption would be too obvious on feeds, and I can’t scramble them like Palpatine apparently can without drawing his attention. I checked, and audio pickup in here is pretty good, unfortunately, though video is low quality. I wouldn’t risk speaking out loud if I were you. Status report? Kenobi will kill me if something happened to you while I was looking away._

_Clear. Maintained cover._ Cody hesitates before adding, _Amidala choked on nothing right before Skywalker and Palpatine walked in. Skywalker didn’t seem to notice anything in the Force._

Vos reads it over Cody’s shoulder and grimaces. “Karking Skywalker,” he grumbles as Cody keeps writing.

_Received prototype grenade and new instructions: frame Rex for grenade, detonate in chamber to take out Amidala. This would remove Amidala, Rex, and me from play, and hit hard at Kenobi. Why?_

Vos frowns for a moment, and then sucks in a breath. “Karking _Skywalker_ ,” Vos repeats in a hiss, and takes the flimsi, vigorously erasing Cody’s words to write his own.

 _Got it, Commander. Someone’s looking for a new apprentice._ Vos writes, teeth bared in a vicious smile. _But I think his search is about to run into some bad luck._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> vod – brother  
> vod'ika - little brother  
> osik – shit  
> jetii – Jedi  
> dar’jetii – Sith  
> Ni n’echoyli gar, Kote – I can’t lose you, Cody.  
> jare’la jetii – foolish Jedi  
> K’oyacyi, Kote. – Stay alive, Cody (‘Goodbye, Cody.’)  
> Akay ni slana’at gar – Until I can reach you (Lit: Until I can get to you.)
> 
> ...Get ready for the grand finale. Also, for the record (haha) you do not learn how to create court delays or anything about court in law school. Padme probably learned this clerking for, like, the Republic High Court.


	4. Chapter 4

Kenobi sends Fives and Rex to get some rest in the spare bunks in the Temple just after lateshift ordinarily starts, but Fives doesn’t think any of them are going to be getting much sleep. There’s too much to plan for Moonset, and the two-word message Amidala had passed along from Cody—“Fox compromised”—is going to be on all their minds.

Still, between one breath and the next, Fives falls asleep, and when he wakes up, it’s to the bright chiming of the door to his borrowed quarters.

He waves the lock off and opens the door to find General Vos behind it, grinning manically. He doesn’t know whether Kenobi or Rex have slept, but Vos definitely hasn’t.

“Sir,” Fives says, strangled.

“Good morning, Fives,” Vos says. “I’m here to steal you for the day, if you’re willing. Got some things to take care of that I’d like you to watch my back for, and I figure you’re sick of sitting around the Temple helping Obi-Wan with logistics.”

“It hasn’t been so bad,” Fives says, feeling an obscure need to defend Kenobi since Cody’s not there to do it.

“No, and it’s important,” Vos agrees. “But everyone needs a break sometimes to do some on-the-ground work and stop staring at numbers, and Kenobi will put me through a wall if I try to drag him away from his datapads. I already told Rex to stay with him, and Skywalker’s with Cody, so you’re coming with me.”

“Anything I need to prepare for, sir?”

Vos waves a hand in dismissal. “Nah. Just meet me back out here when you’re ready. I’ve got everyone’s favorite ration color,” he says, reaching into the folds of his cloak and brandishing two green bars. 

Fives eyes him, but nods and goes to change.

When he steps out again, cleaner and slightly more awake, Vos has his eyes closed and is leaning against the wall. He looks so at peace that Fives wonders briefly whether he’s fallen asleep before Vos blinks and turns to look right at him.

“You’re back! Great, let’s go,” he says, and takes off down the hall.

“Do you need any caf?” Fives hazards, following. Vos might be a Jedi, but even Jedi can’t stay awake forever. Fives has seen Skywalker walk into walls too many times to be fooled by whatever Force-fueled mania Vos is projecting right now.

Vos smiles crookedly at him, passing him a ration bar. Even with the lack of sleep, it’s a nice smile, Fives thinks, and the thought catches him so off-guard that he promptly almost trips over nothing before recovering smoothly into a long stride. Somewhere, Echo must be laughing at him.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m hopped up on a lot of stims right now, but I’ve got an important date planned with a horizontal surface later.” Vos winks. “When Jedi get Master rank, they tell us exactly how long we can go without sleep.”

“Right,” Fives says, dubious. Everything he’s heard from the 212th about Kenobi makes him doubt that, but he’s assuming Vos has a goal here other than to spread questionable rumors about Jedi sleeping habits. “So, where are we going, General?”

To Fives’ amusement, Vos still winces at the title, though he seems to have made his peace with ‘sir.’ “Well, Fives, I’ve made a call that nobody’s gonna be happy about, so we’re taking a field trip.”

Promising start. Kriffing _jetiise_ _._ “Can I get some detail on that, sir?”

Vos glances back at him. “What do you want to know?”

Vos is running on fumes, Fives reminds himself. “Who did you call?” he asks, for starters.

Vos smirks. “A desperate old man.”

Fives stares when no other information is forthcoming. “Why did you call a desperate old man?”

“I had an offer he couldn’t refuse,” Vos says.

Kriffing _jetiise,_ Fives thinks again. Why can’t Vos be a little less cryptic?

Vos snorts as if he’d heard that, but it’s probably just whatever expression he sees on Fives’ face. “Don’t you know they teach us Jedi how to talk around things starting when we’re in the creche?”

Fives laughs a bit despite himself, imagining that. Sleep-deprived Vos would drive Rex insane. Luckily, in Fives’ book, that makes him kind of fun. “I guess General Skywalker missed those lessons,” Fives says.

“He certainly missed something,” Vos says, and ducks into a storeroom. He comes out with a robe, and throws it at Fives. “Put that on, and keep your helmet on.”

“Sir?”

“Like I said,” Vos says. “Field trip.”

Fives opens his mouth to ask again, but thinks better of it and gives up for now. He tugs on the strangely-blank helmet and the robe.

Vos tugs his hood up as they traipse into the Temple’s speederbay. “Come on,” Vos says, pausing over a newer model speeder bike.

“Nice ride,” Fives says. “Don’t you think it’ll be a little conspicuous?”

Vos sighs, and pats the seat forlornly. “I’ll take you for a joyride another day, now that they’re letting me out of the Temple again.” It isn’t completely clear whether he’s talking to Fives or the speeder.

Instead of lingering, he leads Fives over to another model, this one almost completely unremarkable. Fives has seen a million speeders just like it on Coruscant and everywhere else.

“Strap in,” Vos says. “We’re taking the scenic route.”

Fives is barely buckled in when Vos steers them up and out into the speederlanes of Coruscant. It’s early enough that the usual chaos of traffic could be described as merely “busy,” but by the time they ditch the speeder near a maglev platform, the number of pedestrians has increased.

Vos ushers him onto the train, and then onto three other trains. Fives can’t help but notice they’re going back in the direction they came from originally, in strange zigzags.

When they eventually disembark, Fives is heartily sick of trains, speeders, and exhausted Jedi.

Then he startles, looking around. “Why are we in Little Aldera?”

He’s pretty sure they haven’t ended up that far from where they started. There had been a restaurant Echo liked, somewhere around here—a greasy spoon that had served Alderaanian fried skewers.

“Places to be, people to see,” Vos says airily, then turns to Fives, expression going honest and intense. “Hey, listen. I want you to promise me that no matter what happens, you’ll stop me from doing anything stupid. I’ll do the same for you.”

“That would be easier to promise if I knew what was going to happen,” Fives says slowly.

“Please,” Vos says. “Just promise me.”

Fives blinks. “All right, General,” he says.

Vos sighs, looking relieved. “Thank you. And one more thing—I’m not your General. I’m just Vos.” He pauses, smiles that crooked smile again. “Or Quinlan, if you want. Now come on.”

He ducks into an alley before Fives can process that, so Fives is left to follow. Vos looks either way before pushing through a plain door with a small plaque next to it reading “Cantham House.”

Inside, there’s a small room, where Senator Padmé Amidala and General Kenobi are waiting in front of a pair of elegantly-carved wooden double doors. On the wall, a holoscreen with an Alderaanian flag cheerfully informs them that they’re now officially on Alderaanian ground.

“Fives, Vos,” Kenobi says. “Glad you could join us, since this was your terrible idea.”

Vos gives a half-shrug. “Guess we’ll find out if it was so terrible after all. Hey, Senator.”

“Master Jedi, ARC Trooper Fives,” Amidala says, inclining her head to each of them in greeting.

Fives takes off his helmet. “You said General Kenobi was staying at the Temple with Rex,” he mutters to Vos.

Vos looks at him incredulously, and points at himself. “Spy,” he says. “Ears in the Temple, ears everywhere else. Rex is with Windu.”

“Also, a good rule of thumb is to never listen to anything Vos says,” Kenobi adds dryly.

“Bold words from someone whose big plans somehow always involve jumping off of tall buildings.”

Amidala clears her throat. “Gentlemen,” she says. “Shall we?”

“Apologies, Senator Amidala,” Kenobi says. “I don’t believe we’re waiting for anyone else.”

“We aren’t,” Vos confirms.

A beat. “Can I at least get a brief on what’s happening?” Fives asks, since nobody seems particularly inclined to start telling him anything useful.

Kenobi shoots Vos an exasperated look, and Vos shrugs. “Sorry, Fives. I was being careful. We’re meeting that desperate old man I mentioned. I don’t think he’ll try to kill any of us, but hey, there’s no guarantees in this galaxy. This might be our lucky day.”

“‘Desperate old man?’ How discourteous, Quinlan,” Kenobi says, but his lips are twitching. “You should at least have mentioned his refined taste.”

“You’re right,” Vos says, over-solemn. “Omitting that was great oversight on my part.”

Amidala looks pained. “I thought Jedi were taught diplomacy,” she says.

“I skipped each and every lesson,” Vos says, grinning widely.

Kenobi steps up to the double doors, and knocks out a pattern. Fives has a bad feeling about this.

The doors swing open onto a room full of light and a hooded figure facing the enormous stained-glass windows. 

The figure turns to them. “Hello, Senator Amidala,” says Count Dooku, lowering his hood. “And entourage. Do come in. We have much to discuss.”

Fives swears and goes to raise his blaster instinctively but a strong hand clamps down on his arm and holds him back.

“General, let me go,” Fives says, in what he thinks is a loud but completely reasonable tone of voice for being surprised by _Count karking Dooku_ in the middle of the morning on Coruscant.

“No,” Vos says, unperturbed. “Well, only if you swear you won’t try to shoot him. Yet.”

“ _Why,_ ” Fives grits out, not really making it a question.

“Because he’s decided he might make himself useful,” Vos says, grinning with all his teeth.

“Why would he help us?” Fives asks, eyes narrowed.

“In Palpatine’s plan, Dooku definitely dies. In our plan, he might live,” Vos says. “Isn’t that right, Count?”

Dooku looks down his nose at Vos. “We shall see how wise your ‘plan’ is, my erstwhile apprentice,” he says, which, Fives must have missed something. “By the way, two Jedi Masters and a clone commando seems overkill for—what was it? Ah, a ‘desperate old man.’”

Vos’ smile goes cold and sharp. “Don’t misunderstand, _Yan_. I defeated you once. They’re here to make sure I don’t just kill you this time.”

Kenobi sighs. “So dramatic.”

“You’re one to talk,” Vos replies.

“Nobody is killing anybody,” Bail Organa says firmly, stepping out from a door that Fives hadn’t noticed, too zeroed-in on Dooku. “We’re here to have a constructive meeting.”

“Sorry, Senator,” Vos says. “We were just having a friendly chat.”

“Yes,” Dooku agrees. “Though how much you can rely on _friendliness_ and Jedi idealism when Darth Sidious activates the chips and calls for Order 66 remains to be seen.”

“You needn’t worry about that,” Kenobi says. “We’ve already dealt with the issue of the chips. Wouldn’t you rather focus on how to put a blade through Palpatine’s back? Or rather, through Darth Sidious’, thank you for the name. He seems pretty keen to discard you, Count.”

“That’s a rather Dark suggestion, isn’t it, Master Kenobi?” Dooku parries. “Of course, you always were so _attached_ to your Padawan, let alone the rumors I’ve heard about your Marshal Commander. Perhaps you’d like your own shot at Sidious before he succeeds in luring Anakin Skywalker to his side.”

Fives twitches. “What’s General Skywalker got to do with this?”

“Everything,” Dooku intones. Unhelpfully, in Fives’ opinion.

Vos’ grip tightens on his arm. “Palpatine wants Skywalker as his next apprentice, so he’s been working to isolate him. He wanted to have Tano killed, but she left the Order instead, which worked out for him anyway. If he gets Commander Cody out of the way, he delivers a blow to Kenobi. Granted, if he actually knew Kenobi, he’d know that would be enraging and not incapacitating,” Vos breaks off, shaking his head like he can’t believe someone would be so foolish, before continuing. “But he doesn’t know Kenobi, and we can rely on his misunderstandings about the Jedi. Plus, he paid Cody a visit yesterday to give him new instructions: kill Senator Amidala at the start of Cody’s trial with a suicide bomb, and frame Captain Rex for giving it to him. Erode faith in the Jedi, the Senate, and the war effort.”

Vos lets go of Fives, spreading his hands. “Take away the people Skywalker loves one by one, leaving him with only his good friend Palpatine to trust with his grief. Arrange some way to permanently get rid of Dooku and offer Skywalker the power to get Amidala back or heal her or something. Move all the pieces into place, activate the mind-control chips to wipe out the Jedi and get a perfectly obedient army, and crush the galaxy underfoot,” Vos finishes.

Dead silence. “I thought Master Kenobi was the one with precognitive abilities,” Amidala finally says.

Kenobi hides a smile behind his hand. “Only weak ones,” he says.

“Commander Cody figured out most of it first,” Vos says. “And I’ve always been good at puzzles.”

“Elegantly deduced from one miscalculation,” Dooku says. “But what will you do when Sidious kills those people and turns Skywalker anyway? The boy is one push away from Falling, and he glows like a supernova in the Force. If you expect me to choose the certainty of death by an uncontrolled Anakin Skywalker over the possibility of death by Sidious for revealing your plans to him, you are expecting much. He would reward me for betraying you.”

Kenobi’s eyes narrow.

“Can I _please_ shoot him?” Fives asks.

“No,” Vos and Organa say at the same time.

Dooku sneers at Fives, and Fives clenches his jaw and stands down.

“Anakin isn’t going to fall,” Kenobi says frostily. “And you forget that the Sith always betray each other. You may not care about the Rule of Two, but your Master _does_. Vos learned that much from you. You might be rewarded in the short term, but if you continue to play his game by his rules, either you die to make room for another apprentice, or you kill him and take his place as the Master. He’s twenty years younger and he was steeped in the Dark for longer. He will kill you.”

“Perhaps, and perhaps not.”

“Don’t let the Dark cloud your judgment, Grandmaster,” Kenobi says. “If you were strong enough to kill him, you would have done it already.”

Vos leans in. “Kenobi’s right, and you know it. We’re offering you a way out. The only way out you have.”

Dooku scowls. “Even if I don’t tell Sidious your plans, you haven’t convinced me of why I ought to play witness at this trial.”

Kenobi smirks. “You don’t want your chance at vengeance? Publicly striking down the Master who has failed to see your worth?”

“Vengeance doesn’t mean embarking on a fool’s errand, Master Kenobi. What should I care for the life of one clone?”

Vos steps in front of Fives before he can launch himself at Dooku and kark whatever political _osik_ is going on. The bastard deserves to be shot or at the very least punched in the face, but Vos seems intent on not letting Fives do it.

Fives subsides. He’d promised.

“You’re treading on dangerous ground, Count,” Kenobi says mildly.

Dooku snorts. “Your emotions make you weak, Grandpadawan. If you harnessed them for the Dark, you would have such power.” He shakes his head. “A shame you’ve tied yourself to the Jedi path.”

Kenobi opens his mouth to reply, but Vos steps in before he can. “Stop baiting him, Dooku,” Vos says. “Trust me, none of us want to find out what a galaxy with Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Dark would look like.”

Fives eyes Vos skeptically. From Dooku’s expression, he’d actually very much like to find out what Kenobi going rogue would be like.

But Dooku, shockingly, lets it go and raises an eyebrow. “Very well. But you still haven’t answered my question. Why should I risk myself at this farce of a trial?”

“Because if we can remove Palpatine from the chancellorship, we can end the war, strip the emergency powers from the office, sue for peace and move to recognize the Separatists,” Amidala says. “Your testimony would be instrumental in making that happen.”

“Oh, you are blind, Senator Amidala. The chancellorship is already an emperor’s throne, you simply refuse to see it. Whoever wields that power after him will not be quick to give it up, and the war justifies it. It is a self-operating machine, now, for a Republic which is broken beyond repair.”

“You were a reformer when you were still a Jedi, Count Dooku. Surely you cannot believe that there is nothing to be done but torch the whole structure,” Organa says.

“If I believed there was anything to be done, I wouldn’t have joined a group of secessionists,” Dooku says icily. 

“ _You_ may simply ‘refuse to see it,’ but there’s so much possibility ahead. It’s there, if we work for it. We have bills ready to be moved with a receptive Chancellor,” Amidala says.

“Bills,” Dooku scoffs. “Senators squabble amongst themselves instead of passing legislation to help even their constituents, let alone anyone else. The media fuel the flame, pitting politicians against one another for more exciting stories. The Republic is riddled with corruption and bribery. The biggest corporations in the galaxy have any number of Senators in their pockets. The Jedi are no longer an independent body allowed to fulfill their mission; they are at the whim of prevailing political opinion in the Senate. Slavery, poverty, hunger—all the ills that places like Alderaan and Naboo aren’t so afflicted by—run rampant in the rest of the galaxy while Coruscant turns away from the needs of those who live outside the Core.”

“The Confederacy of Independent Systems hasn’t eradicated those problems either,” Kenobi points out. “In fact, you’ve worked with the Hutts and Zygerrians to protect their slave trades, forced prisoners of war to labor for the Separatist war effort, and devastated entire planetary economies for refusing to bend to you, sending millions more souls into destitution.”

Dooku’s posture, if possible, gets even more rigid. “Unlike the Republic’s Chancellor, I am not the sole all-powerful leader of the Separatist systems, and there are other stakeholders I am beholden to. In order to achieve ultimate victory, certain compromises must be made.”

“Compromises?” Fives hisses. 

“Yeah, you aren’t doing your argument any favors by defending slavery,” Vos says.

Dooku sneers again. “Your precious army is built on slavery.”

“Apparently because your _Master_ wanted it that way!” Fives snarls. “The Jedi have been caught in this trap with us, fighting beside us, mourning when we mourn. I knew it didn’t make any sense that the Jedi would put that karking chip in us, but if it was you and your _dar’jetii_ Master—now that, I can see. You’ve been killing us for some masterplan this whole time! Maybe we were made to die, but you’ve been the one ensuring that happens.”

Vos crosses his arms. “I might look the other way if you want to shoot him in a non-lethal place,” he says.

“I must insist that there be no blasterfire in the Alderaanian Embassy,” Kenobi says. His lip curls. “No matter how well-deserved.”

“The status of the clones is abhorrent to any who value life,” Organa interjects, defusing the tension before Dooku can reply and inevitably make it worse. “And the Jedi have spearheaded the Senate effort to recognize that. The clone troops of the GAR must have the same rights as we do, and if Palpatine would allow it to be brought to a vote, they would already be full citizens of the Republic. As things stand, he and his Senate allies will not allow it, but we’ve already drafted an omnibus citizenship bill that will grant the clones status as citizens, ensure pensions for the entire GAR, and create a jobs training program for veterans of the war.” He casts a glance at Kenobi. “Commander Cody and General Kenobi have helped craft the legislation. It’s ready to be brought up for a vote at any time.”

“The other problems are solvable, as well. Not in a day, not in a year, but it can be done,” Amidala agrees. “Reform is possible. Anti-corruption measures in the Senate and throughout the galactic government, returning power and a voice to the people, an independent Jedi Order empowered to take on the deepest-rooted problems, it’s all possible. But not with Palpatine. Few Senators would want their constituents to see them vote for slavery or against good governance legislation, but Palpatine has half the Senate in his thrall and would block any bills passed.”

“The war benefits him more than anyone else—we already know he wants to use it to seize absolute power,” Organa adds. “Peace would be his undoing. So long as there are mutual safeguards and efforts established to fight slavery in both the CIS and the Republic, we could coexist. You could even be granted diplomatic legitimacy as the Separatist leader.”

“Because that matters so much to the Jedi Order, which would arrest me if they ever noticed me setting foot on Republic territory,” Dooku says, scathing, but it’s weak. Even Fives, who used to rely on Echo to be politically aware for him, can tell that the Count is losing, and he knows it.

Kenobi clears his throat. “I’ve been authorized to offer you a conditional pardon, actually,” he says. “Much as I wouldn’t like to. If you aid us in this and swear on the Force to train no more apprentices, the Order will leave you in peace. Master Windu argued on your behalf.”

Dooku raises both eyebrows, now. “Is Master Windu expecting me to return to the Order with my tail between my legs like Master Vos, here?”

Vos rolls his eyes. “You’re not like me,” he says. “You spent a decade orchestrating a galaxy-wide war, torturing people for power, and helping a megalomaniac try to enslave two million human beings. Whatever noble political ideas you might’ve once had don’t erase that. You couldn’t come back even if you wanted to, and I’d sooner kill you than let you near anyone I care about ever again.” He smiles menacingly. “And that’s a promise, not a threat.”

“Charming,” Dooku says, but leans back a hair.

“You’ve spent so much time on destruction, Count Dooku,” Amidala says evenly. “But you’re not a fool. Wouldn’t you like to see what can still be built?”

Dooku is silent for long moments, and Fives fights to not reach for his blaster. It would be so easy. It would be so easy, and it would alert Palpatine, and untold numbers of his brothers would die. Far more than this man has killed.

The Count steeples his fingers. “I admit you all have planned your game well, and you have my attention. I make no promises, but I’ll listen to your proposal.”

“That’s enough to start. Here’s what’s going to happen,” Amidala says, and begins.

-

Skywalker skulks in looking sheepish for his second shift playing prison guard, but Cody’s not really in a comforting mood, even if he didn’t have to stick to his script of rank and ident number. Sure, the guy’s apparently the target of a massive conspiracy to bring him to Palpatine’s side, but he’s a karking Jedi. Shouldn’t he have figured out his ‘good friend’ the Chancellor was evil earlier?

Cody raises an eyebrow when Skywalker sits down where Vos had been, conveniently blocking the holocam in the room.

“Commander,” Skywalker says, and pulls a toolkit from his robe, wiggling it in the air a bit. He’s careful to keep it in front of him, out of view of the ‘cam.

The grenade, Cody thinks. Skywalker could give Tech a run for his credits with electronics; if he can disarm it, they’ll all be better off even if Cody’s weaponless. It’s hard to overstate how much he doesn’t like the idea of Palpatine having the remote activation key.

He hands over the grenade, and Skywalker whistles. “Experimental,” he murmurs, so low Cody wouldn’t have heard it if he hadn’t been sitting next to the man. “These aren’t supposed to be ready, yet.”

Cody coughs pointedly.

Skywalker grins shamelessly. “Right. Not a toy. Sorry.”

He bends over the little bomb, starts pulling it apart in a way that makes Cody twitchy. But the grenade is trackable, so until it’s disabled, Skywalker can’t go anywhere and neither can Cody. Not if they don’t want to risk a repeat performance of Palpatine showing up to personally order Cody to kill people.

Something clicks and Skywalker nods, decisive, and slots all the pieces back together but one that he pockets and one that he gives back to Cody, and takes out a piece of flimsi to scribble on. _Got it. Tracker and remote detonator out. Keep the tracker. Just a regular grenade, now. You want to keep it in case you need it?_

The first thing Cody’s doing if—when—it comes to a firefight is finding a karking blaster, not lobbing a grenade at the Chancellor of the Republic in a packed room.

He must think that a little too loudly, because Skywalker raises his hands in a placating gesture. _Copy, Commander. Also, Senator Amidala is bringing your 212th armor for the trial tomorrow. Obi-Wan insisted you have it._

Of course he insisted, Cody thinks, missing Obi-Wan with a fierce and sudden ache. Of course he’d remembered, even in the middle of coordinating a campaign to prevent galactic catastrophe.

Before Skywalker can write anything about whatever he can read on Cody’s face, the door opens to reveal Rex, helmet tucked under his arm. “General, Commander,” Rex says. “General, you’ve got a comm waiting.”

“Thanks, Rex,” Skywalker says, but hesitates before stepping out, turning back to face Cody with a deep breath and speaking very quietly. “For the record? I’m sorry. I didn’t know—you and Obi-Wan, you’re good for him. So don’t die, Commander.”

Cody inclines his head in thanks. It’s not nothing.

“You really had to karking step in it, _vod_ ,” Rex grumbles when Skywalker’s passed him the flimsi and gone out the door.

Cody fixes him with a wry look.

Rex sighs. “Yeah, I would’ve done the same. But I don’t have to like it.”

Cody knocks their shoulders together. He can’t say that part of why he’d done it was so Rex would never have to, but he doesn’t need to say it. Rex already knows.

Rex offers him the flimsi, and starts writing on it himself when Cody shakes his head. _I’ll be on Fox. Jesse and Boil should be bringing reinforcements from the 501st and 212th. When this turns into a clusterkriff, we’ll manage. Just stay alive._

Why is everyone telling him that? He karking well plans on making it out alive.

Rex must see that in his expression, because he snorts and keeps writing. _Hey, I never know with you and Kenobi._

Cody can’t punch his little brother. Not today. So he glares, crossing his arms.

 _Suit yourself_ , Rex writes, unfazed.

Cody huffs, and deliberately turns away.

-

The Court is just as unwelcoming as Fives remembers it looking in the flash training. He and Rex get there bright and early, and Rex immediately splits off to figure out where the Guard is posted—and where Fox is—while Fives sweeps the boxes. The Senators haven’t shown up yet, but there’s no reason to get complacent.

Kenobi’s waiting in the Jedi box, jaw set. He glances at Fives when he files in, nods. “Welcome to the circus, ARC Trooper,” he says.

“General. You look,” Fives searches for a diplomatic way to say it, and gives up. “Well, you look like you haven’t slept in three cycles, sir.”

Kenobi drags a hand through his hair. “That is because I haven’t. Anakin and Quinlan have been alternating keeping watch, while I’ve been coordinating Moonset with the Council, and sorting through what we were told at Cantham House.” He sighs, one of his hands curling into a fist. “Cody’s been a sitting target for the last three days, and I haven’t been able to help.”

“Sir,” Fives says awkwardly. “I’m sure Generals Skywalker and Vos have been making sure nothing happens.”

“It’s what’s already happened that concerns me,” Kenobi says, grim. “And what will happen today.”

At this point, Vos himself makes an appearance, and Fives breathes a sigh of relief. He’s never seen Kenobi look so ready for a fight, and it’s frankly kind of terrifying. He’s glad for the backup.

Maybe a little glad that it’s Vos, specifically.

“You get a nap in, Kenobi?” Vos asks.

“No, and consequently I find myself in a rather unsparing mood, Quinlan, to be completely honest.”

“Unsparing is probably what we’ll need, today,” Vos mutters, then eyes Kenobi, concern flitting across his features. “Maybe you should sit? You know, in a chair? Save your strength?”

Kenobi glares daggers at Vos, who rolls his eyes and raises his hands. “All right, all right,” Vos says. “Message received.”

Then he shifts like he’s about to say something else, so Fives decides to throw himself on the landmine. Mostly for Vos’ sake. Any distraction is better than no distraction, and Kenobi’s got a look on his face like the next person to suggest he do something as normal as sit down is going to have their head smashed in.

“Permission to ask a personal question, General?” Fives asks.

“Yes, of course. What is it, Fives?”

Echo used to say Fives’ nose for gossip was going to get him killed one day, but at least if that day is today then he won’t get killed by Palpatine. Also, he _does_ want to know. He has for days. “What did you say to Cody, in Jan’nai’s Door? To make him get up?”

Kenobi colors slightly, but recovers his composure admirably, raising his chin. He doesn’t even look irritated with Fives for asking. “I told him we would go together, or not at all.”

Fives stares at him. He’d known about Cody, of course—he’d staked his karking life on it. The lives of the entire GAR. But the Jedi feel so distant, sometimes, that he had somehow forgotten there would be a second side to the story, even with what Kenobi had said in the medbay.

Vos puts a hand on Kenobi’s shoulder. “Obi-Wan,” Vos starts, but before he can say anything more, Generals Windu and Yoda push aside the curtain, followed by Rex, who takes his helmet off and salutes.

“Generals,” Rex says. “Commander Fox and his men are stationed at standard perimeter points. They must be expecting something, because they’ve got almost a full complement here.” His mouth twists. “And they definitely aren’t acting right.”

Yoda closes his eyes for a moment and then exhales, sorrowful. “Mired in darkness, they are,” he says. “Mired in darkness, we all are.”

“Moonset will begin as soon as Commander Cody is brought in,” Windu says.

Kenobi strokes a hand over his beard absently. “Good. The Chancellor will realize something has gone wrong for him when Cody doesn’t activate his grenade.” He frowns. “What remains to be seen is how he will choose to proceed. Captain Rex’s news that so much of the Coruscant Guard is here is troubling, indeed.”

“Yeah, our options for avoiding a fight aren’t looking great,” Vos agrees. “Especially once the Count shows up and that karking would-be dictator realizes we’ve got him surrounded.”

“Faith, Master Vos. End this war, we will,” Yoda says, claws tightening ever-so-slightly on his gimer stick. “Today.”

Kenobi nods. “I hope you’re right, Master.” 

The senators have appeared one by one in their box—Fives had thought a military tribunal would be, well, natborn GAR officers, at least, but apparently not—and Palpatine is now at the front speaking with Mas Amedda. Amidala is reading over flimsi at her podium.

The doors open, and Cody is led in, flanked by Skywalker and two Coruscant Guards. Amidala goes to confer with him, and Palpatine only glances over briefly, but Fives could swear the room stills for a moment before she walks back to her podium.

Windu presses something on his wristcomm, nods to Kenobi. “Moonset is a go.”

If Palpatine is surprised, he’s not letting it show. Rex taps Fives’ shoulder and signs to him. _Stay here. I’ll go to the perimeter._

Fives nods. He’d have a hard time taking Fox, but Rex can probably keep him occupied. If this goes to hell, Fives’ job will be covering the Jedi until their reinforcements show up.

“Commander CC-2224, you have been charged with treason against the Republic,” Palpatine intones, face somber on the vidscreens above him. Fives can hear the clicks as holojournalists in the press box turn on their recording devices. “How do you plead?”

“Not guilty,” Cody says, clear and strong.

Palpatine doesn’t react. “Very well. Prosecution, you may begin.”

Tarkin stands at his own podium. “Commander CC-2224,” Tarkin starts. Kark, Fives has always hated that guy. “Today I will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you have committed treason against the Republic and attempted murder of a superior officer. Senators, I ask you to consider the full range of remedies offered by the law, including the death penalty.”

Before they send in the firing squad, Cody had said. Fives swallows. It doesn’t feel like much of a joke at all, now.

“Defense?”

“My fellow Senators,” Amidala says. “Commander Cody, identification number CC-2224, is not guilty of the crimes he stands accused of here today. He did attack Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he did not do so willingly and he is not the true culprit. Despite the expedited trial process, we must take care to ensure that justice is done.”

“A neat explanation, Senator Amidala, though we shall see what evidence you have managed to scrounge up,” Tarkin says with a dismissive sniff. “Senators, I present to you irrefutable proof of Marshal Commander CC-2224 attacking his very own Jedi General, Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

He plays the video from the probe droid, sounds of Cody and Kenobi fighting echoing through the room. Everyone in the press box seems mesmerized, Fives thinks in disgust, and the Senators are no better. Only Organa sits with his hands folded, a politician’s smile fixed firmly on his face. 

“The case is clear, Senators, Chancellor. I need not call any witnesses. The prosecution rests.”

Fives doesn’t know much about the law, but he’s pretty sure that’s an oddly short presentation. But Amidala goes with it.

“Admiral Tarkin has presented no new evidence beyond what was already known: that Commander Cody and General Kenobi were caught fighting outside the Jedi Temple. I ask you, Senators, to now consider testimony from Commander Cody himself. I call the Commander as witness.”

Cody straightens, walks forward. Palpatine leans in with a hint of a smile that Fives doesn’t like one bit.

“Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” Amedda asks.

“I so swear,” Cody says. He’s standing at parade rest—Fives would wonder if he’s even aware he’s doing it, but he’s Cody, so he must be. His chin is tilted at an angle that Fives has seen a million times on brothers who have dug in for the karking long haul. Their template was stubborn as banthahide and Cody’s got all the additional stubbornness of being, well, Cody.

“Commander,” Amidala begins. “Please tell us your version of what happened, four nights ago.”

“General Kenobi and I had a mission in the lower levels, and we were returning to the Temple. I saw an opportunity before we arrived, and I attacked High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi of my own volition, because the Jedi have—” Cody breaks off, mouth working but no sound coming out. He looks like he’s struggling against his own words. The viewscreen on Fives’ helmet is picking up an increase in Cody’s heartrate.

“That’s not what he wanted to say,” Kenobi murmurs, frowning and leaning over the balcony.

“Commander?” Amidala asks.

Cody says nothing, but his jaw is clenched and his fingers are drumming against the wood in front of him. Fives frowns. That’s a tell Cody never shows.

All at once, Kenobi goes ramrod-straight next to him. “Mace, Palpatine is attacking his shields, trying to control him,” Kenobi says urgently. “He’s hurting him.”

“Obi-Wan, be careful—” Windu says, but Kenobi is already moving, leaping up to balance on the railing and making a wide, cutting motion with his hands.

At the podium, Cody sways before squaring his shoulders, and shakes his head as if clearing it, and Palpatine turns unerringly to find Kenobi staring back at him.

Fives blinks and the room goes dark and foreboding for just a moment, before Palpatine looks back to Cody with a grandfatherly smile.

“You were saying, Commander?”

Kenobi has a look of deep concentration on his face, and sweat begins to bead at his temples. He’s still holding his arms in front of him, standing with his feet planted on the railing, stable as only a Jedi could be in that position.

Fives gets the feeling that things are about to go extremely sideways.

-

Somehow, Obi-Wan must be helping him. Cody can feel it, can feel the warmth beating back the ichor that had cast a shadow over his mind, cutting through the oily darkness like a blade of pure light.

Obi-Wan is strong as beskar and Cody knows it better than anyone, but whatever he’s doing can’t last very long. His guess is they don’t have a lot of time, and his planned speech is getting a drastic cut.

He will not be controlled again by that karking _demagolka_ _._

So instead of saying what he was going to say, Cody looks Palpatine in the face, and says: “I attacked General Kenobi on your orders, because of the mind-control chip you put in my head. And you just tried to get in my head and control me again. Chancellor.”

The chamber goes completely silent, before erupting in noise.

“This is outrageous!” calls one of Palpatine’s cronies in the Senate box. “The clone is clearly insane!”

“Explain yourself, Chancellor! Nobody is above the law, not even the leader of the Republic!”

That’s Senator Organa. Obi-Wan’s always spoken highly of him—he’d been the one to raise the idea of a citizenship bill for the GAR, had walked them through the parts of the legislation.

“This accusation cannot stand,” Tarkin says. “I object!”

Amidala raises an elegant eyebrow. “On what grounds, _prosecutor_?”

“Order, order!” a furious Amedda shouts, banging the gavel. “Order in the Court!”

Palpatine smiles, paternal. Now that Cody knows, it’s a transparently fake expression.

“I’m sure there’s been some confusion,” Palpatine says. “Clearly, the Commander is unwell and should be sent back to Kamino for medical treatment. I’ve not had any communication with him in days, I don’t know what he could possibly be referring to.”

“I have information to the contrary,” calls a booming— _familiar_ —voice from the back of the chamber. A tall humanoid in a cloak strides up next to Cody.

Then he removes his hood.

Cody blinks. Surely he must be hallucinating now.

But Amidala stands a little taller and raises her chin. “As the prosecution seems to have chosen to forego cross-examining Commander Cody in favor of causing chaos in the courtroom, we submit forensic analysis of the control chip in question as further evidence, and now call Count Yan Dooku of the Confederacy of Independent Systems as the next witness for the defense,” she says, remarkably even.

Cody really would have appreciated a heads-up. But with Skywalker a door away, he supposes this would have been sensitive intel even with Amidala’s jammer. Dooku doesn’t even look at him.

“What is the meaning of this? Guards! This man is a traitor to the Republic and a danger to all present!” Palpatine calls. “Arrest him!”

Organa stands. “Let him speak! This is a court of law and he is here as a witness!”

Fox and his men stand unsure, caught between the Chancellor and the cluster of people around Cody. Cody thinks he sees a flash of rage on Palpatine’s face, before it fades into his habitual mildness. “Are we to listen to traitors who kill our own, Senator Organa?” he asks. “That sounds unwise.”

“Sometimes, wisdom can be found even in the hearts of villains. And there are legal procedures which must be followed, are there not, Chancellor? A criminal in one case may testify as a witness in another. He is a witness who may have information relevant to this case, so he must speak.”

“How noble of you to cling to the galactic rules of criminal procedure even in what we all know to be a sham trial, Senator,” Dooku says. “Unfortunately, I am here because the true villain is Chancellor Palpatine, who has orchestrated both sides of this war in an effort to gain ultimate power over the Republic and destroy the Jedi Order by brainwashing the clone troopers of the GAR to kill their Jedi Generals and Commanders.”

“These claims are completely absurd,” Tarkin says. “Count Dooku has betrayed the principles of the Republic, and his testimony must be impeached.”

Dooku raises an eyebrow. “Senator Amidala, if you would play the recording.”

“We’re introducing the following video evidence,” Amidala says before Palpatine can agree with Tarkin. Palpatine signals the Guards and they begin to move towards them, but a holovid has already started playing in the chamber.

“It’s over the live broadcast, too,” Amidala murmurs to Cody. 

Cody hears what is unmistakably Palpatine’s voice playing for only a few moments before he tunes it out. “ _Very good, CC-2224. I have heard that you failed to kill Kenobi…_ ”

He can see it in the Guards’ jerky motions, can feel it building in the air. Things are about to get tricky. “Plan, Senator?” he asks.

Amidala opens her mouth to respond, and then all the screens go dark, the doors slamming down into emergency lock. Cody moves automatically to cover Amidala, although he doesn’t have a weapon.

A long, deep sigh sounds over the speakers. “I was so close to victory,” Palpatine says, mournful. His lip curls into a sneer. “How unfortunate that none of you will live to recognize that.”

“Chancellor Palpatine, you’re under arrest for treason against the Republic and crimes against sentient life,” Windu calls from the balcony, lightsaber held in a guard. “Come peacefully, and we will ensure you get a fair trial.”

Palpatine laughs, long and high and strangely echoing. “I have other plans, Master Windu. Beginning with you, Count Dooku.”

But that’s too much of a warning, because when he raises a hand calmly and shoots _karking lightning_ at Dooku, the Count moves faster than anyone but a Force user could to block it with a glowing red blade.

“You are not so infallible after all, my Master,” Dooku says, tossing the lightning aside.

Next to Cody, Amidala has hitched up her skirt, and pulled two blasters from their thigh holsters. She hands Cody one, and keeps the other for herself. He raises an eyebrow at her.

“It never hurts to be prepared,” she tells him. “We need to get to cover before—”

“We shall see,” Palpatine says, and speaks into his comm unit. “All troopers, execute Order 66. The Jedi are traitors and must be eliminated.”

Well, they’re karking in it now.

And then Palpatine pulls out his own red lightsaber and he and Dooku are off again, blades clashing. Obi-Wan and the rest of the Jedi are still in the balcony, blue-purple-green lightsabers busily deflecting blastershots.

The Senators and holojournalists are probably panicking. Cody decides that today that’s someone else’s problem.

Instead of finishing whatever she was going to say, Amidala takes off towards Skywalker and Rex, on the ground at the back of the chamber. Cody follows, sniping Fox’s men with stun shots where he can—the pistol Amidala gave him is Naboo-made, but he hasn’t got one of the highest weapons ratings in the GAR for nothing. He manages to get Tarkin with a stun bolt as the man is backing towards an exit with Amedda, but he’ll admit that shot is mostly for personal satisfaction.

Skywalker sees them coming and curses, leaps between them and Palpatine’s fight with Dooku while the rest of the Jedi are busy with troopers.

“Glad you could join us,” Rex says, throwing Cody a Deece.

“Thanks,” Cody says, switching out the pistol and handing it back to Amidala. “No offense, Senator. We all have our weapons preferences.”

She shakes her head and then squints and takes a shot. “None taken.”

“What happened to being on Fox?” Cody asks Rex.

“I was,” Rex says, grimacing. “But then half his karking men got between us. If Jesse’s squad makes it into the room, they’ll get him.”

Palpatine pushes Dooku away to land in a leap across the room, and faces Skywalker. His voice is loud, all-encompassing, even with the din. “Anakin, my boy, why are you helping the Jedi traitors fight me? We’ve always been so close, you and I. You know I only ever wanted the best for you. They don’t care for you the way I do.”

Cody doesn’t let himself shiver. Palpatine’s voice is slick and cloying.

Skywalker wavers a little, but brings his blade up and holds it steady as they circle each other. “If you want what’s best for me, you should stop trying to kill my friends.”

“I’ve only tried to kill Count Dooku,” Palpatine says. “Surely he isn’t one of your friends. We’re friends, are we not? Haven’t I supported you and Senator Amidala?”

Skywalker shakes his head like a tooka shaking off water. “You gave Cody a suicide mission. You called an attack on the Jedi and led us all into a firefight.”

“All for the greater good, my boy. Order will come from chaos. An Empire will rise from the ashes of the Republic and the Jedi Order that you find so constraining.” His face changes, going paternal, a parody of kindness. “Oh, Anakin. The Jedi can’t give you the power to protect her from what is to come. I can.”

“Anakin, he’s lying!” Amidala calls out. “He’s trying to use me to get to you! He wanted Cody to kill me!”

“Be silent,” Palpatine says, face contorting in rage for a moment before he sends a short arc of lightning towards her only to be intercepted by the green of Vos’ lightsaber as the man himself lands near them.

Vos throw the lightning aside with a grunt, nods at Cody, and starts deflecting blaster bolts again. A brother Cody assumes is Fives is covering Vos, stunning troopers left and right. Fox really had dispatched a lot of men for this. If Jesse and Boil can’t break in, they’re going to have a hard time getting out of this without killing any of the Guard before the Guards can kill them.

Skywalker’s face goes stormy. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

-

“I overreacted in anger,” Palpatine says, circling Skywalker like a predator. “Surely you, of all people, understand that.”

“Just because I’ve done things I’m not proud of doesn’t make me a Sith,” Skywalker grinds out.

“Nor does it make you a Jedi, Anakin. You’ve always known, haven’t you? They never wanted you in their perfect Temple. You’ve never been a true Jedi. Even your precious Master knows it.”

Skywalker scowls, opens his mouth, and then Kenobi is between him and Palpatine.

“Mind games, Darth Sidious? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” Kenobi says, and tilts his head at Skywalker while keeping his eyes on the Chancellor. “And for the record, Anakin, you are a strong and wise Jedi, and I’ve always been very proud of you.”

Palpatine sighs, but instead of using his lightsaber immediately, he holds out a hand and flings Kenobi aside like a bug and lifts Skywalker up into the air to scrabble at his throat. “A shame you’re being so difficult. I’m afraid that means that instead of ruling at my side, you will _die_.”

Fives watches the red lightsaber arc towards Skywalker and he can’t do a thing about it, pinned down back-to-back with Vos as he is.

But he’s not the only one still in this fight.

“No!” Kenobi cries out from where he landed, and rolls to his feet, centering himself and _shoving_ the air, knocking Palpatine back into the column behind him before his red lightsaber gets to Skywalker. But Palpatine recovers fast, bringing his blade up to clash with Windu’s as the Jedi drops from the balcony to join the fight on their level.

“Thanks,” Skywalker says hoarsely when Kenobi lands next to him to deflect fire while he gets his bearings. Palpatine and Windu are moving almost too fast to follow, purple and red blurring together, soon joined by Yoda’s green.

Fives and Cody exchange a glance. They’ve been going after easy pickings in their corner, protecting Amidala, but they’ve got to turn the tide, and soon.

“I’ll cover the General,” Cody says firmly, and leaves them to fight his way over to where Kenobi has made himself into a whirlwind of deflected blastershots.

“Hey, Skywalker!” Vos calls. “Some help would be good!”

Skywalker jumps away from the front of the room and back towards them, ripping a huge panel up from the ground as he goes, creating a barrier to at least some of the blasterfire flying around.

“All right,” Skywalker says, only a little breathless. “So the Chancellor is definitely a Sith Lord, and Fox has more of his still-chipped men here than we thought. Windu, Yoda, and I have to take out Palpatine. Dooku and Obi-Wan are busy with the Guard, and it looks like we aren’t getting help from Torrent anytime soon, I have no idea what the kark is going on outside the doors. Shocking though it may be, most senators and media are still on the balconies, keeping their heads down.” He grimaces. “We’ll need to get them out.”

Rex nods. “Yes, sir.”

“Rex, Fives, get Senator Amidala and the other Senators out of here, and see if you can make a kriffing door for Jesse and Boil. Make sure she gets somewhere safe.”

Fives nods and turns to flank Amidala, but Amidala doesn’t move, staring Skywalker down. “Like hell I will,” she says, turning to Rex. “Captain, do you have an extra blaster? Mine are almost out of charges.”

“Padmé!” Skywalker says, jaw clenched.

“Don’t start,” she says. “You and I both know I’m a better shot than you, and I’ve been helping so far. Captain, a blaster?”

Rex looks between Skywalker and Amidala. Fives is extremely glad that he isn’t Rex right now. 

“Padmé, you need to get out of here.”

“And do what? Fight through whatever’s left of the Coruscant Guard outside? Don’t be ridiculous, Anakin.”

“It’s safer than staying here! The Chancellor is a kriffing Sith Lord!”

“Which is exactly why you should give me another blaster,” she says. “You don’t have the resources to spare to escort me out.”

“Move it, Skywalker! Make a call!” Vos yells.

Fives takes pity on Rex. “Senator, General,” he says. “General Vos is right. All due respect, but we need to move, and we need to move now.”

Skywalker stares at Amidala for a moment longer, and then gives in, grinding his teeth. “Fine,” he says, nodding at Rex, who hands over his holdout blaster without a word. Skywalker jumps back towards Kenobi, lightsaber spinning as he goes. Cody seems to have found himself a nice spot behind a piece of what was once floor and is still methodically picking off Fox’s men one by one.

Fives barely startles when he hears a terrible cracking noise, and then what seems like half the back wall collapses, and troopers in 212th gold and 501st blue start to clamber into the room, but Fives can only afford a quick glance over, because the air is abruptly _much_ thicker with blasterfire.

“It is karking good to see you, _vod_ ,” Rex says truthfully, somewhere behind him.

Fives looks over, and Jesse is next to Amidala, doing his own sniping. “Save it for when we kill this kriffing _dar’jetii_ _,_ Captain,” Jesse replies, nodding at Fives. “Hey, Fives, glad you’re alive. 212th has the perimeter. Ghost and most of Torrent are occupied with Fox’s men in the halls.”

Palpatine shrieks in inhuman rage, and pushes away Windu, Yoda and Dooku in a shockwave so strong that Fives has to dig in his heels even across the enormous chamber. All the overhead lights in the room go dark, emergency lighting turning on.

“Jedi _filth._ I will ensure that you cannot protect that which you love,” Palpatine rasps, and turns on his comm, projecting his voice. “Commander Thire, take your men to the Temple and execute Order 66 there. Begin with the youngest. Leave no survivors.”

 _Demagolka_ _,_ Fives thinks in horror. The younglings.

“General Vos!” Fives calls, and then, because if there’s ever been a time to throw caution to the wind it’s karking now, “Quinlan!”

Vos— _Quinlan_ —vaults over a Guard to land at his side. “What is it? Any ideas?”

Kenobi and Skywalker aren’t far behind, while Windu and Yoda have moved back in to keep Palpatine occupied, Cody still at the front of the room picking off Guard troops that get too close. Dooku’s pinned down in a corner, deflecting fire since none of the new troopers seem inclined to help him. Fox is in a knot of his own men, and Rex and Jesse are busy stunning the new ones who keep showing up in between stunning the ones going for their little cluster.

None of them can keep it up forever.

But as long as Palpatine is in the fight, none of them have any choice.

Fives swallows. “You need to go,” he says. “They won’t have warning at the Temple, and we can’t reach anyone in orbit in time because of Moonset. Split the 501st and take Ghost.”

Skywalker shakes his head. “Then there won’t be enough men here to take out the Guard.”

“If we can take out Palpatine, the Guard will be easier,” Rex calls over his shoulder.

Fives nods. “And no brother who marches on the Temple will be able to live with himself. General, _please_.”

“Anakin, they’re right,” Kenobi says, grim. “Take the Senators, take Vos, and go. Defend the younglings. We can keep Palpatine here, we’ll hold back the Guard for as long as it takes.”

“But—”

Kenobi puts a hand on Skywalker’s shoulder fleetingly, before moving into a defensive stance to block more fire. “You’re the only one of us that can hold back so many at once without unnecessary death,” he says.

Vos is already backing slowly towards the door, covered by Jesse and some brothers from the 212th. “Come on, Skywalker, we’ll do more good there.”

“They’re right, Anakin,” Amidala says. “We need to go.”

“Oh, _now_ you want to get out of here?” Skywalker asks, deflecting a stray blaster bolt. “He did this on purpose, to split up our forces. He thinks he can win if we’re at half-strength.”

“Then it’s fortunate that we’re stronger than he thinks,” Kenobi replies.

Skywalker scowls. “But what if we lose because we’re just giving him what he wants?”

“Have a little faith, Skywalker!” Vos calls.

They need to move, Fives thinks again, stunning another Guard. How many men does Fox even _have?_ He turns to Skywalker. “Go, General. We’ll hold it down.”

“Obi-Wan—” Skywalker starts, and breaks off, looking torn.

Kenobi smiles. “Go, Anakin. With all my hope.”

Skywalker straightens and nods, signaling to Rex and Jesse. “Let’s go,” he says, features going battle-calm. “We’ve got a Temple to save.”

Before he turns to face Palpatine, Fives can see Vos through the light streaking around the room, backlit in the wreckage of what used to be the back wall. The Jedi smiles at him again, that rare honesty peeking through, and sends him a short salute.

Fives snorts, saluting back, and goes back to his own fight.

-

They’ve knocked out a significant number of Fox’s men, especially now that it doesn’t look like there are any more coming, but there’s still too many brainwashed brothers in red in this karking room for Cody to like their odds of getting through this relatively unscathed.

He’s running increasingly dire risk calculations when Obi-Wan lands next to him, deflecting several blasterbolts as he goes.

“Enjoying yourself, Commander?” Obi-Wan asks, not even a little winded.

“You know me, General,” Cody says. “Nothing’s more fun than the trenches.”

“I sent Anakin with half our men to protect the Temple. All we need to do is manage things here.”

“And by ‘manage things,’ you mean manage the _dar’jetii_ who can shoot lightning from his fingertips and choke people with the Force, while we’re under fire from untold numbers of my brainwashed brothers?”

“Precisely,” Obi-Wan says breezily. “I can clear you a path to Fox—it’ll take them a minute to get their bearings if you can manage to knock him out, since Palpatine sent Thire away.”

Cody scans the room. It’s a good plan for their reduced numbers, while Windu and Yoda are still flashing around the Chancellor.

He nods to Obi-Wan, who gives him a cocky grin and jumps into a flip to take out two troopers at once.

Kriffing show-off. Cody can feel his own lips twitch upwards as he follows, like he always does.

Obi-Wan turns his lightsaber off and dives into the melee between the remaining 212th and the Guard when they get close enough to Fox’s cluster, and leaves the Commander to Cody.

“Time to wake the kark up, _vod_ ,” Cody says, and launches himself at Fox.

Fox doesn’t speak, still eerily silent, but Cody’s always been the best in their batch at hand-to-hand. He can’t stun him at this range, and he doesn’t think it would be a good idea even if he could—Fox must have an awful lot of those contingency orders active, and Cody doesn’t really want to scramble his brain even more.

He manages to knock the helmet off, Fox practically growling at him. “Wake _up,_ ” Cody grits out again, and slams his forehead into Fox’s nose.

“I’m already awake, traitor,” Fox manages, and then goes limp with a stun shot.

Cody follows the trajectory to Fives, who nods, and then Cody’s pivoting back to his own sharpshooting to get some men off Obi-Wan’s tail.

Palpatine raises his hands and tries his shockwave trick again, throwing Windu and Yoda back, along with the Guard troops near them. But Cody’s braced for it this time, and so is Obi-Wan, who sees the opening and immediately leaps back towards the Chancellor, leaving Cody to swear and fight his way towards them.

“I should have known you were the mastermind, Kenobi,” Palpatine says. “I’ve always regretted that Maul didn’t kill you, you know. It would have made things so much easier if you had died with your beloved Master. You’ve proven to be quite an obstacle to my little chats with Anakin.”

“You will not touch him,” Obi-Wan snarls, pushing Palpatine back. Kark it all, Cody has no angle and keeps having to knock out Fox’s men. He should have kept Amidala’s holdout blaster.

“Oh, but I already did,” Palpatine says. “One more push, and he would have been mine. He’ll never get my mark out of his mind. The taint of darkness lasts forever, isn’t that what the Jedi believe?”

Obi-Wan’s expression goes absolutely thunderous as he and Palpatine trade testing blows. “Your darkness, your _weakness_ —it’s no match for his light. So long as I live, Anakin will never be yours,” he swears.

Palpatine laughs madly. “How fortunate that I can ensure you won’t _live_ much longer. It will give me such pleasure to kill you.”

“I invite you to try it,” Obi-Wan says, and unleashes a ferocious combination that Palpatine deflects blow for blow, blurring with motion.

“Yes, that’s very good, Kenobi. Your rage is simply—” Palpatine breaks off, sighs as if he isn’t even winded by the fight, and continues, “—exquisite. Perhaps I was wrong to tell Dooku you weren’t worth pursuing.”

Obi-Wan leaps, and when he brings his saber down to clash against Palpatine’s, Cody can see he’s centered himself with a vicious little smile. “How funny you should mention my Grandmaster—or should I say, your traitorous apprentice?”

Palpatine’s face turns enraged and he pushes Obi-Wan so hard that he throws out his hands to land halfway across the chamber in a crouch in a knot of Fox’s men, but Dooku and Yoda are already moving in towards Palpatine as one.

Cody turns his sights to start picking off the men around Obi-Wan again, but keeps the fight in range. If they can take out Palpatine, all this stops.

Obi-Wan had told him once that Dooku had been Yoda’s Padawan, but he hadn’t completely been able to imagine it. Until now. They’re moving too fast to follow, Yoda’s green blade flashing in and out of Dooku’s and Palpatine’s red. But then Yoda flips away, and Dooku presses his advantage, a fury in his eyes that runs hotter than Cody’s ever seen the icy old man.

“All your little games, Lord Sidious. You forgot there are pieces in play that don’t belong to you. You thought you could replace me with some arrogant whelp?” Dooku hisses, red blade sparking against red. “I am not some common tool like Maul. I was raised to Mastery when you were still learning at the knee of Darth Plagueis. I will not be thrown aside by the likes of _you_.”

But then Palpatine laughs again, high and unnatural, and tosses Dooku away as if the whole time he’s only been playing with his food. Dooku rolls when he hits the ground, moving back up into a defensive stance with his habitual sneer.

Palpatine shakes his head in a mockery of regret before he casually shoots a bolt of lightning at Dooku, who isn’t quick enough to block it. Dooku staggers to one knee, convulsing, but doesn’t drop.

“I could have given you such power, for a time. All this work, and you ruined such a perfect set-up because you forgot that in the end, only one of us would live,” Palpatine says, and tsks. “But you may still be of use.”

The lightning stops, and before any of them realize what’s happening, something silvery-grey is flowing from Dooku’s chest into Palpatine’s.

And then Dooku screams, and the entire room freezes at the terror in the sound.

Cody’s heard men scream like that before. He just never imagined Dooku would.

Yoda recovers first, and launches himself at Palpatine, distracting him enough that the silver light between Dooku and Palpatine gutters out. Cody has to blink because he isn’t sure at first, but Palpatine looks like he’s gotten—younger? And Dooku, Cody realizes as the man stumbles to his feet gasping, looks like he’s aged ten years in the last minute.

Cody has seen some weird karking Force _osik_. He’s practically an expert on it.

But he’s glad he and Obi-Wan never ran into whatever this is before.

Yoda springs back, giving ground, and Palpatine smiles cruelly. “Not so high and mighty now, are you, Grandmaster Yoda? Perhaps I’ll kill you first, after all. I really can’t forgive how you’ve ruined my plans, but I suppose the situation is salvageable.”

But Windu jumps in to fill the gap where Dooku should have been. He must have cleared his part of the room, Cody thinks. “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Windu says.

“Ruined your own plans, you did, Sidious,” Yoda calls. “Overconfident, you became. Too certain of your own invincibility.”

“Never so overconfident as you, Jedi, nor so easily distracted,” Palpatine says, and bears down on Windu, his other hand lifting to the side.

“Cody!” shouts Obi-Wan, and Cody raises his hand instinctively to catch the lightsaber flying towards him, turning it on in time to see something bright arcing in his direction.

There’s no time to think, so he doesn’t think.

Instead, he _moves_.

He shifts into a block—Vos had done it, and yeah, Cody’s no Jedi, but he has to do this, there’s only him and what he can withstand and he can withstand this, he’s got no other choice he can live with—and the lightning hits the lightsaber instead of hitting him. Cody grunts, grounding his stance even as his feet slide back with the force of it. His arms are beginning to burn from the heat, not just the exertion. How can anyone take this head-on? Skywalker’s been hit with it multiple times, he remembers.

Palpatine sneers, holding the lightning, and pushes Windu hard enough that the Jedi lands halfway to where Fives is standing, swearing a blue streak. Palpatine leaps towards Cody, tilts his head in an eerie curiosity.

“A Jedi stance. How quaint,” Palpatine says, and redoubles the lightning.

Cody drops to one knee. He needs to redirect this, and soon, but he doesn’t know how.

But he has no options. So he uses all his strength to twist the lightsaber until it’s pointed at Palpatine, and then he breathes, thinks of the calm season on Kamino when the rains stopped for a tenday and the seas went still around Tipoca City, thinks of the hum of the engine room in the _Vigilance_ like the ship is singing, thinks of the way Obi-Wan’s voice had sounded walking him through the katas.

And then he lets it go.

Palpatine flips up before the lightning hits him, but Cody could swear that for a second he looks almost surprised.

Obi-Wan leaps down beside Cody. “Very well done,” he says, grinning at Cody with the fierceness of battle. Cody would follow him into any hell. 

“Would have been better if I’d hit him, though,” Cody says, and goes to hand the lightsaber back to Obi-Wan, but before he completes the motion, he sees lightning arcing towards them again—no, not towards them, towards _Obi-Wan,_ and his body is moving before he even fully registers it to push Obi-Wan down and out of the way.

Through the pain and the sheer relief that he was fast enough, the last thing he hears is the rapid staccato of two shots ringing out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> vod – brother  
> osik – shit  
> jetii – Jedi  
> jetiise – Jedi (plural)  
> demagolka – monster/one who commits atrocities  
> dar’jetii – Sith  
>   
> Sorry for any emotional damages, except I’m not very sorry at all and I fully intended it. Check the tags for reassurances. Chapter 5 (the epilogue chapter) in the next few days!


	5. Chapter 5

_“This is Jens Harpin with Tooka News, coming to you live from the scene of disarray in the galactic capital in the aftermath of the trial of GAR Marshal Commander CC-2224, known as ‘Cody.’ Preliminary reports from people in the room this morning indicate that a rogue clone trooper may have shot Chancellor Palpatine, which is devastating news for galactic prosperity and any hope of winning this war. Identification numbers of other clones in the room are unknown, although it is presumed that Coruscant Guard Commander CC-1010, known as ‘Fox,’ was present. We also haven’t received word about rogue clone trooper CT-27-5555, known as ARC-5555, known as ‘Fives,’ who went missing several days ago after, according to the news alert, making an attempt on the Chancellor’s life. So it is possible that this clone was at the trial as well. The Jedi Order has not been reached for comment at this time. For more from the Senate Dome, I’ll turn it over now to my colleague, Kor Vapeet.”_

_“Thanks, Jens. It’s been chaos over here for the last few hours. The Scipio-500 has plummeted more than 460 points since the news broke that the Chancellor had been struck down—wait, excuse me, I’m getting breaking reports that Separatist leader Count Dooku has been seen entering the office of Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo, a known Separatist sympathizer who unveiled a peace plan just hours ago with the other members of the so-called Delegation of 2000. Dooku seems to have aged beyond his years since the last time he gave a speech. High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi was apparently also seen with the two of them. What do you think about this development, Jens?”_

_“Hard to say for certain, Kor, but it sure seems like a conspiracy to me. How did Dooku even get onto Coruscant, and why is he meeting with the Negotiator after making such wild accusations during the trial? If there are going to be peace talks, they should let the public know. Besides, who authorized Amidala to go ahead with this, anyway? Palpatine’s body hasn’t even cooled, and she’s practically dancing on the grave of the man who was her co-Senator from Naboo by throwing out the war he tried so hard to win.”_

_“Well, we don’t know what’s happening in that room. We can only hope she’s brought Kenobi to bring Dooku to justice once and for all, and cut off the head of the Separatist viper.”_

_“I hope so, but Amidala’s always been soft on the Separatists, and I bet this is her opening to get what she’s been angling for this whole time: the Chancellorship. Mark my words, she misses being Queen and thinks that office is hers by right. You never know with these elected royals.”_

_“One thing is for sure, and that’s that the Delegation of 2000 is her invention. We haven’t heard the last of that weak initiative yet, but the public won’t be happy if Amidala’s using Palpatine’s death to boost her own goals.”_

_-_

**_General Grievous of Kalee Declares Independence from the Republic, Re-Organizes Forces into Droid Liberation Movement_ **

_Lyra Erso | 9350.84 | The Onderon Independent_

_In the wake of a highly-publicized peace deal between the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic brokered by Count Yan Dooku of Serenno and Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo, key CIS Forces leader General Grievous has declared that Kalee and some of the droid forces are splintering to form their own faction, standing independent from both the Republic and the CIS._

_“Dooku may play his political games, but no droid will ever be free in the Republic under this deal. I call on all freedom-loving droids to join me on the Outer Rim to continue the fight against tyranny,” Grievous said in a holostatement._

_However, according to classified commlogs obtained by the Onderon Independent, over 70% of droids in the CIS Army have been voluntarily adjusting their programming to shift focus to industrial and agricultural purposes. Approximately 20% have pledged to support Grievous in his efforts._

_Grievous is still wanted as a criminal in Republic-controlled space, and the Jedi Order and newly-reformed Judicial Forces have indicated that he will be promptly arrested if he enters their jurisdiction._

_“Grievous is running scared. He knows the game is up and he doesn’t want to die, so if he’s as smart as we think he is, he’ll lie low for a while,” a Republic official who requested anonymity told the Independent._

_For now, Grievous seems to be biding his time in or near Utapaun airspace._

_ Stay up to date with the critical work of the Onderon Independent by joining our commlist.  _

_-_

_“Hello, you’re listening to All Frequencies Considered on WCDA, bringing Mandalorian Public Radio to Concord Dawn. As a reminder, our donation drive will be coming up in a tenday, so remember to support your local MPR affiliate. To hear this broadcast in Mando’a, tune into 101.35CD.”_

_“We are live with the complete story behind the events of the last few days. As of this morning, the GAR has officially ended its communications blackout, known as Operation Moonset.”_

_“To recap, after the live feed of the trial of Marshal Commander Cody was interrupted four days ago, the entire GAR went comms-dark. We learned that this was a daring plan coordinated by Jedi Generals Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Marshal Commander Cody, and several other troopers and Jedi who have not been credited publicly. According to declassified commlogs, the late Chancellor Palpatine had a failsafe obedience chip implanted into every clone in the GAR. I’ll let you listeners hear some of the consequences of that for yourselves—be warned, this may be triggering to some of you, so tune back in after a minute to skip the recording, or read our transcript later.”_

_***[What follows is a partial transcript of publicly available recordings.]***_

_PALPATINE: “A mission, hm? Is Kenobi with you now?”_

_CODY: “He is, sir.”_

_PALPATINE: “Are the two of you in a secure location?”_

_CODY: “Yes, sir.”_

_PALPATINE: “Well then, Commander. Consider this a test of your abilities. Execute Order 66.”_

_[Indecipherable noises of fighting for about 3 minutes have been omitted from this recording.]_

_CODY: “You, you didn’t receive the order. You’re—how do I know you’re not a traitor, too? The Jedi, they’re traitors. But you killed them. You deserve a, something. Commendation. We need to—there’s more of them. We’re the only ones here, we need reinforcements.”_

_UNKNOWN TROOPER: “We need to make a plan.”_

_CODY: “The Chancellor, he said this was a test. It’s us against the whole Temple, Fives. A Temple full of Jedi traitors.”_

_***[End transcript.]***_

_“That’s right, listeners. Palpatine triggered Order 66, an extermination order, for Marshal Commander Cody, forcing him to target General Kenobi. Preliminary investigations have found that Kenobi had been getting too close to interfering in Palpatine’s plans, and the Jedi Order has indicated that Palpatine also attempted to use the Force to control Commander Cody during his trial, where these recordings were entered into evidence before the holocams cut out.”_

_“It is believed that the ‘Fives’ that Commander Cody was speaking to is ARC Trooper Fives of the 501st Legion under Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, but WCDA has been unable to reach Skywalker or Fives for comment. Our Coruscant-based investigative team is working to confirm.”_

_“Since the trial, it has been revealed that the Chancellor was a dar’jetii—excuse me, thank you Nera for the correction—a Sith. The Sith are the ancient enemies of the Jedi who, according to available information, were thought to be extinct until very recently. The Jedi Order has further alleged that the current wielder of the darksaber, a Zabrak warrior known as Maul who publicly murdered Duchess Satine Kryze in Sundari several months ago, is also a Sith and therefore under their jurisdiction.”_

_“Back to our main story for today. After Commander Cody’s attempt on Kenobi’s life, he was somehow broken of the conditioning—the Republic has not released any details about this—and worked with Kenobi and Windu to stop the Chancellor’s plans to brainwash the two million clones in the GAR in order to stage a coup and flip the chancellorship into a dictatorship.”_

_“The Chancellor moved to put Commander Cody on trial for attempted murder, bypassing several institutional safeguards in the Republic. This trial is already being called the ‘Coruscant Debacle’ by much of the Core media due to everything that went wrong during it. The Jedi and clones used the wait time to plan Operation Moonset, the communications blackout, so they could prevent the obedience chips from being used for long enough to foil Palpatine’s plans permanently. Senator Amidala, who was acting as Commander Cody’s defense counsel, called Count Yan Dooku of the Confederacy of Independent Systems as a surprise witness before the holocams cut out, and Dooku backed up Commander Cody’s assertions of Palpatine’s guilt and made some stunning accusations of his own.”_

_“According to our sources, after the trial holofeeds were interrupted, fighting broke out in the courtroom between Chancellor Palpatine, Count Dooku, a number of Jedi, the clone troopers present, and reinforcements. Certain Senators are also believed to have thrown themselves into the fray. By the time holojournalists were able to return to the chamber, Chancellor Palpatine was dead, Commander Cody was being rushed to the Jedi Temple for medical treatment, and Senators Padmé Amidala and now-Acting Chancellor Bail Organa were giving interviews…”_

_-_

_[Cold open begins. A cloaked figure enters stage left. This is CHANCELLOR PALPATINE. He walks to center stage and throws off the hood, cackling.]_

_PALPATINE: You’ll never catch me! I’ve got it all planned out!_

_[A new figure runs in from stage right, in full GAR armor with haphazard gold streaks. This is CLONE COMMANDER CODY. He levels a blaster at PALPATINE.]_

_PALPATINE: The perfect crime—nobody will ever know it was me. Not even you, Commander Cody, or your little Jedi friends! You can’t kill me, I’m an evil wizard dictator and I’m going to rule the galaxy like a villain from the worst holodrama you’ve ever watched! I’ve got it all down. Mind-control, murdering children, henchmen orchestrating both sides of the war. Mind-controlling my henchmen to murder children. Oh, also, lightning powers. Mustn’t forget those._

_CODY [lowering blaster in surprise]: You just said it all out loud. I had a whole speech planned, and you just—said it._

_PALPATINE [still cackling]: Nobody will ever believe you!_

_CODY: Chancellor, the holocams are on. You’re being recorded._

_[Another humanoid runs onto the stage, this one in Jedi robes waving a glowing blue stick. This is JEDI MASTER OBI-WAN KENOBI. He tosses his hair dramatically, cloak swaying in nonexistent wind. He’s followed by JEDI MASTERS MACE WINDU and YODA and three CLONE TROOPERS. Shortly after, COUNT DOOKU follows them onstage at a more sedate pace.]_

_DOOKU: Palpatine is evil, everyone. Just so you know. I mean, I’ve killed a lot of people, and he’s evil even by my standards._

_KENOBI_ _[pointing the glowing stick at PALPATINE, ignoring DOOKU]: Halt, evildoer! You’re under arrest._

_PALPATINE [also ignoring DOOKU]: I’m under arrest? Peon! Fool! You can’t arrest me, Jedi scum. I’ll use my lightning powers on you!_

_CODY: No!_

_[CODY tackles KENOBI to the ground. Meanwhile, CLONE TROOPER #1 quietly raises a blaster and shoots Palpatine. DOOKU sighs loudly.]_

_PALPATINE [touches bleeding chest, looking at camera]: Why would the Jedi Order do this?_

_[PALPATINE, CODY, and KENOBI lean into the mic.]_

_ALL: And live from Corellia, it’s Centaxday night!_

_-_

_GALACTIC WEST PRESS_

_For immediate release:_

_Vice Chair Mas Amedda and Galactic West are pleased to announce a forthcoming holobook based on Amedda’s time as the late Chancellor Palpatine’s right hand, titled “UNDER THE DOME: A Memoir.”_

_The holobook is set to contain insider tips about the Senate as well as the dirty laundry that Palpatine never showed to the public which reveals him as the architect of the Clone War. This gripping true-to-life story will be a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the run-up to the War and how those around the Chancellor were taken in by his manipulations._

_Over the 80,000 words of “Under the Dome,” Amedda will walk readers through a number of illustrative incidents and show Palpatine’s thinking from the perspective of Amedda’s time as a loyal footsoldier of the late Chancellor. Amedda shows how he grew disillusioned with Palpatine’s methods but felt unable to do anything for fear of the hold the Chancellor had on everyone in his office, the Coruscant Guard, and a majority of Senators—but now, Amedda is boldly speaking out._

_Direct all inquiries to frequency GW-105-30685._

_-_

_s/OpenCircleStans_

_Posted by u/Fives_Shot_First 2 hours ago:_

_CNL from last night is up and the boys are IN IT. [holovid embedded]_

**_404 Comments [sort: Best First]_ **

_Skywalkers501st [2 hours ago]: What I wouldn’t give for actual footage of what went down in that room…_

> _212thForever [2 hours ago]: For real. They should release the autopsy. I want to know what actually killed that guy._
> 
> _Clone_Anon [2 hours ago]:_ _I heard Palpatine pulled out a lightsaber and fought like 5 Jedi at once and mind-controlled some troopers._
>
>> _Skywalkers501st [1 hour ago]: Whaaaat the kaaaark_
>> 
>> _ObiStanKenobi [1 hour ago]: Well that. Is kriffing horrifying. Mind control???_
>>
>>> _CloakDrop [1 hour ago]: It’s been all over the news. I think Cycled Air on MPR managed to get an interview with Sen Amidala yesterday where she basically confirmed it._
>> 
>> _ObligatoryDoubter [1 hour ago]: Source?_
>>
>>> _Clone_Anon [1 hour ago]: The karking grapevine, wtk do you want from me we aren’t even supposed to be on here and our comms were off_
>> 
>> **_29 more replies_ **
> 
> _CloakDrop [1 hour ago]: IDK maybe wait until Amedda’s ~holobook~ is out and that slimeball will tell us all about it since he was there and I’m sure he acted sooo heroic /s_
> 
> **_43 more replies_ **

_Tarkin_Is_The_Worst [1 hour ago]: Uhhh can we talk about how Tarkin pushed for the death penalty, like, immediately? Can he do that? Is he even a prosecutor?_

> _ARCTroopers [1 hour ago]: *puts my lawyer hat on* Tarkin is a maniac, obviously, and he’s not actually a prosecutor, but since Palps spent most of the last 3 years dismantling institutional safeguards and letting Tarkin and the Trade Fed and whoever do whatever the kark they wanted, Tarkin could prosecute on the government’s behalf here despite not even going to law school, let alone being a member of the Coruscant Bar. Also, before today the clone troopers in the GAR weren’t actually citizens of the Republic (so they didn’t have legal rights before Organa signed the Clones’ Rights Act into law today) which has been a major point of disagreement between the Amidala/Organa/Mothma faction (aka the Good Person Faction, with backing from the Jedi) of the Loyalist Committee and the Taa/Aak faction._
>
>> _PalpatineSucks [1 hour ago]: What, like, any legal rights? At all?_
>>
>>> _ARCTroopers [1 hour ago]: Yep. Zero. Well, again, until today. Palpatine would never have signed the bill—he didn’t even let them bring it to debate. My bet is he was paying the Kaminoans under the table to keep quiet about the potential for mind control, too, but that’s just speculation._
>>>
>>>> _212thForever [1 hour ago]: Perhaps… whoever killed him… was valid._
>>>>
>>>>> _Fives_Shot_First [1 hour ago]: It was definitely Fives and he is definitely valid_
>>>> 
>>>> _Tarkin_Is_The_Worst [1 hour ago]: Anyone else feeling twelve million vibroblade emojis right now_
>>>>
>>>>> _PalpatineSucks [1 hour ago]: Hm yeah not to advocate violence, but uhhhhhhh I would piss on his grave_
>
>> _ObiStanKenobi [1 hour ago]: Why didn’t the Jedi do anything about this earlier? That’s super messed up._
>>
>>> _ARCTroopers [1 hour ago]: They had no leverage over Palpatine, he was the Commander in Chief of the GAR. Unless they just deserted en masse, but then they’d have bigger problems, and the GAR would be run by volunteers like Tarkin, which would be Worse. Like it or not, the only beings who can change the Senate Rules are the beings who are… in the Senate. I.e., not the Jedi. If the citizens of the Republic don’t like their Senators, they can vote them out of office. And half the Senate was under Palpatine’s thumb. He didn’t even need to write a platform the last election. Hopefully this whole misadventure forces some democracy reforms to prevent institutional capture like this in the future._
>>>
>>>> _CloakDrop [1 hour ago]: ^Amidala gave an interview where she said basically this. Also, she heavily implied that_ _Commander Cody had a hand in crafting the final version of the Clones’ Rights Act, which is good because the clones should have a say in their future, ykwim?_
>>>> 
>>>> _212thForever [1 hour ago]: Hmmm Palps really had a mind-controllable slave army for three years and maneuvered the wizard monks he wanted to kill into running it to make them into easier targets huh… don’t like that_
>>>>
>>>>> _Skywalkers501st [1 hour ago]: Yeah it’s not good._
>>>>> 
>>>>> _Tarkin_Is_The_Worst [1 hour ago]: I am straight up not having a good time right now_
>
>> _ObligatoryDoubter [1 hour ago]: Ok but slavery/indenture is only technically illegal in the Republic, nobody ever did anything about Czerka Arms on Hosnian Prime even before the war. The clones’ status is just the codified version._
>>
>>> _PalpatineSucks [1 hour ago]: That doesn’t make this, like, less bad, though. We should definitely ALSO do something about that, and all the other shady arms dealers, but the status of the clones is something the Senate should have changed three years ago but Palpatine and his nasty friends blocked it._
>>> 
>>> _Historica_Galactica [1 hour ago]: The Jedi took on the Zygerrian Slave Empire during the Old Republic and won. I feel like if we just… let them and the clones do whatever they wanted and took the politics out of it, we’d have a slavery-free galaxy in ten years._
>>>
>>>> _ObligatoryDoubter [1 hour ago]: Oh, because the answer is always *less* accountability for the wizard monks who can melt you with their brains._
>>>> 
>>>> _Command_Class [1 hour ago]: Here’s a crazy idea: we let the Jedi be politically independent but accountable to the same justice system as the rest of the Republic, and ALSO vote in Senators who actually support good policies._
>>>> 
>>>> **_15 more replies_ **
>>> 
>>> **_27 more replies_ **
>> 
>> **_84 more replies_ **

_ObligatoryDoubter [2 hours ago]: Does CNL have insider info about Palpatine having “lightning powers” or are they just doing their usual banthashit?_

> _PalpatineSucks [2 hours ago]: I mean, they’re right more often than not. IDK about Cmdr Cody tackling Kenobi, though._
>
>> _Command_Class [2 hours ago]: Are you kidding? If Skeev Palpatine threatened Kenobi, all bets are off._
> 
> _Skywalkers501st [1 hour ago]: There’s a lot of footage of Dooku throwing lightning so I guess if you have Jedi wizard powers you can? The holos from after def looked like there was SOME sort of freaky fight in the chamber and it’s not a fight if only one side is fighting._
> 
> _SomeoneHelpCaptainRex [1 hour ago]: With the way things have been going lately… none of this would surprise me if confirmed. I think this year has destroyed my ability to be surprised by anything, actually._

_DroidsAreCool [1 hour ago]: Kark the Jedi._

> _CloakDrop [1 hour ago]: Damn, some of us are trying…_
>
>> _OohMrKenobi [1 hour ago]: horny alert_
>> 
>> **_79 more replies_ **
> 
> _Tarkin_Is_The_Worst [1 hour ago]: GTKO this is the STANS sub. Read the kriffing rules._

**_[Continue this thread…]_ **

_-_

_The Theed Post | Top Stories by Hit Count_

**_News:_** _New Forensic Analysis Shows GAR Trooper Mind Control Chips Had Contingency Orders for Suicide, Homicide, Fratricide_

**_Analysis:_** _Bold Organa-Mothma-Amidala Legislation Would Go a Long Way Towards Repairing the Wrongs of Palpatine’s Tenure as Chancellor_

**_Opinion:_** _Amidala and Mothma: We Need Democracy Reforms Now_

**_Galactic:_** _How the GAR Fought and Almost Won a War It Was Meant to Lose_

**_Local:_** _Naboo to Send Aid to Rim Worlds as Part of New Senate Initiative_

**_Business:_** _Revealed Financial Records Show Palpatine Used the Chancellorship as a Years-Long Tax Evasion Scheme_

**_Education:_** _Theed Mayor Says Palpatine School of the Arts will be Renamed_

**_Obits:_** _Farewell to an Evil Son of Naboo_

**_Food and Drink:_** _5 Bars Offering Coruscant-Debacle-Themed Specialty Cocktails_

_-_

_“Welcome to another episode of Voice of Lothal, with your co-hosts M and E. Today, we’ll be talking about the show trial of Marshal Commander Cody of the GAR. It’s old news already and everyone’s talking about the new Chancellor’s peace deal, but it was a hell of a lightshow over there on Coruscant, huh, M?”_

_“You know, E, I usually take all the news out of the Core with a boulder of salt, but I’m glad they managed to get rid of Chancellor Palpatine, even though nobody really knows what happened after the holocams cut out. I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead, but that sleemo was the worst.”_

_“Hey, when the dead guy you’re speaking ill of is an evil wizard who tried to mind-control two million people, maybe speaking ill of him is exactly what he deserves. Besides, Acting Chancellor Organa’s policies seem a lot more reasonable. Maybe the changeover in the Chancellor’s Office will mean Lothal’s agricultural sector can finally rebound and the people will renew the fight for stronger safeguards of the mining industry.”_

_“Keep dreaming, E. I’ll believe that the new Chancellor has Lothal’s and the Rim’s best interests at heart when I see it and not a minute sooner.”_

_“Have a little faith, M. He’s already stripped his own office of most of the emergency powers, which will make it a lot more difficult for any future evil wizards to take control.”_

_“That’s true, but I wish we didn’t have to worry about evil wizards at all.”_

_-_

_SPOTTED at a fundraiser for the Delegation of 2000’s newly-organized Sentient Rights Relief Effort: Acting Chancellor BAIL ORGANA; Senators PADMÉ AMIDALA of Naboo, MON MOTHMA of Chandrila, and RIYO CHUCHI of Pantora; Jedi Generals MACE WINDU and PLO KOON; former GAR Commander WOLFFE and Coruscant Guard Commander FOX; and many more._

_Senate-watchers may notice that the Senators behind this effort are also the architects of both the recent peace deal with Dooku’s Separatists and the Clones’ Rights Act, which Organa signed into law this morning after it passed by a historic margin in the chamber last night._

_Notably absent were any allies of the late Chancellor Palpatine._

_Senator ORN FREE TAA’s office forwarded a message indicating that Senator Taa of Ryloth has been hard at work and was sorry to miss the festivities. AMIDALA’s office, which organized the event, indicated that TAA had not been invited._

-

If Eerin is right, Cody’s supposed to wake up today, but Fives hasn’t braved the medical wing yet. When he and Rex had stepped in to check yesterday after the peace deal went through, the lead Healer had immediately made frantic shooing motions. Fives hadn’t understood the aggression until he’d glimpsed General Kenobi curled up in one of the uncomfortable chairs next to Cody’s bed, out cold, and then he’d understood it perfectly. Healer Che had sworn up and down there would be holopics. Proof, she’d claimed, that Obi-Wan Kenobi sleeps.

So instead of going to hassle her again, he’s standing in front of an unfamiliar doorway, not really sure what he wants to say, only that he needs to say something.

“Quit loitering out there,” a voice calls from within, and the door opens to reveal Quinlan Vos and a room that looks like a closet exploded in it. Vos gestures him in. “Come in. You want any caf?”

“I’m all right,” Fives says. “Thanks.”

Vos waves a hand. “I know it’s a mess in here, but I swear I know where everything is. I’m just doing some organizing so Aayla doesn’t track me down and kill me when she gets back with her Commander and can’t find the floor. Or a bed.”

Fives blinks. Bly had made it official? Rex is going to clean up on that bet.

He shakes his head a little to clear it. He had something to say. Sort of.

“General,” Fives says, and then pauses.

“Still not your General,” Vos says, eyeroll audible in his voice, and goes back to collecting items and putting them in a travel bag in no order Fives can discern. “Just Vos, or Quinlan.”

“Are you going somewhere, General—Vos—Quinlan?” Fives finally settles on. The war is over, he thinks. Maybe Vos has meant it, and besides, Fives is in a risk-taking mood.

It’ll take some getting used to, but it feels like something Fives maybe wants to get used to.

Vos smirks at him. “If Dooku’s not lying about it, I’ve misplaced a friend. Want to help me find her? You’re a handy guy to have around, ARC Trooper.”

“If you’re Quinlan and not General, then I have to be Fives and not ARC Trooper,” Fives points out.

Vos’ smile turns genuine, and a little uneven. “All right, Fives. So, want to come?”

Fives hesitates, tries to paste a confident expression on his face and probably fails. “Don’t know if that’s a good idea. I’m still not sure the Guard isn’t gonna arrest me once they remember that I’m the one who actually shot the Chancellor. Well, shot him first.”

“Someone had to do it,” Vos says. “You just saved everyone else a lot of work. And probably saved a few people’s lives. Plus, you know, saved your two million dechipped brothers who didn’t get mind-controlled. I’m pretty sure they withdrew the original warrant for your arrest, actually. And besides, that’s all the more reason to come with me! I’m the best at not getting arrested for crimes that shouldn’t have been crimes.”

That doesn’t sound like it matches up with everything he’s learned about Vos. It doesn’t sound like it matches up with _anything_ he’s learned about Vos, actually.

But Rex gave Fives a promotion, an honorable discharge, and a lead to follow when he found him in the chaos after the trial, and the GAR is disbanding. The clones have been guaranteed a place as citizens in the new galaxy, and there’ll be plenty of work—he’s pretty sure Rex and Wolffe have been in talks with Organa about a new homeworld for them to settle—but Fives is a simple man. He’s glad to be free, but after the last couple weeks, he’s more than happy to leave the politicking to his brothers. Besides, he has unfinished business with the Techno Union and, unfortunately, a recently-refreshed memory of a crooked smile.

“Who’s the friend you’re tracking down?” he asks.

Vos grins like he knows he’s already won. “She was evil for a while, but she got better, I promise.”

Like that’s enough to go on. Fives looks up, curses Echo out for leaving him to deal with emotions, galactic chaos, and insane _jetiise_. When they find him, Fives is going to tell him about all of it so he can watch Echo laugh himself sick.

“If we’re looking for your friend, I want to look for mine, too,” Fives says. “We thought he died at the Citadel, but Rex gave me intel that he could still be alive.”

Vos shoulders his pack, testing the weight. “Sure, Fives. Wherever you want to go.”

-

Cody blinks awake to find that everything hurts, and he’s in a very familiar medbay. His mouth tastes unpleasantly of stale bacta, his chest is swathed in bandages under a flimsy medical gown, and when he tries to roll his left shoulder, slow as he can, he immediately gives it up for a bad idea. He turns his head and sees that Obi-Wan is sleeping in the chair at his right, cheek pressed against the plastoid hard enough to leave an impression and fingers tangled with Cody’s own.

“Obi-Wan,” Cody says before he can really think it through, because he knows if it was him in the chair and Obi-Wan in the bed, he’d want to know. Because he wants to see Obi-Wan awake and alive and looking back at him. Because he would have stepped in front of that lightning a hundred times.

Obi-Wan’s eyelids flutter, and then open wide. “Cody,” Obi-Wan breathes, frozen completely still.

“Obi-Wan,” Cody says again, and then: “C’mere.”

Obi-Wan inhales raggedly, almost a sob, and Cody uses their linked hands to drag Obi-Wan to him because he wants to stop Obi-Wan looking at him like that, like he’s being ripped away. He isn’t going anywhere. Cody holds on, heedless of his karking shoulder because someone is trembling and it shouldn’t be Obi-Wan, and Cody’s sick of waiting, he’s sick of it, he doesn’t want to know how much time he’s wasted sleeping, so he puts a hand in Obi-Wan’s hair and pulls him down, and Obi-Wan understands him exactly. He always does. His lips are soft and dry, beard new and strange against Cody’s own stubble. Cody wants to keep him here forever. Little gods, Cody should have let Obi-Wan tell him earlier.

They break apart, both of them breathing harshly. Obi-Wan makes a little wounded noise Cody never wants to hear again, and the only clear recourse is for Cody to hold Obi-Wan as tightly as he can, so he does. A few minutes go by, and then he gives up his internal clock as unimportant and instead tries measuring time in the increments of tension that seep out of Obi-Wan’s shoulders and the way his breaths become smoother. This measurement is much more useful.

“I thought you were dead,” Obi-Wan says eventually, words muffled in Cody’s thin medbay shift. “Your heart stopped twice on the way here. Kix wasn’t sure—well, none of us were. Flask assured me you were too stubborn to die, but Cody—”

“I’m alive,” Cody murmurs, letting his fingers card through Obi-Wan’s hair.

“I thought you were gone, I thought you’d gone without me. Cody,” Obi-Wan says like it’s torn out of him. “ _Kote,_ Cody, I thought you were _dead_.”

“I’m alive,” Cody repeats. “I’m here. We both are. _Ni su’cuyi,_ Obi-Wan. _ Ni nu’ba’slana gar._”

Obi-Wan pulls back to look him in the eyes before pressing their foreheads together. “Don’t do that again,” Obi-Wan says, voice hoarse.

“You know someone else planning to shoot lightning at you?” Cody asks.

Obi-Wan gives a watery chuckle. “Cody.”

“I won’t,” Cody says.

Obi-Wan settles against him, somehow folding himself neatly onto the cot with Cody. It can’t be comfortable, but Cody’s happy to stay right here, with Obi-Wan a line of warmth along his side. He selfishly hopes Flask and Kix haven’t noticed that he woke up from the monitors he’s hooked up to.

“Good,” Obi-Wan says.

Long moments pass, but eventually Cody has to ask. He doesn’t want to, but he needs to know what’s waiting for him. He traces shapes on Obi-Wan’s shoulderblade in apology, and because he can. “The Chancellor?” Cody asks.

“Dead,” Obi-Wan says. “Fives shot him. Vos told me that Rex and Senator Amidala put another round or two in for certainty’s sake when they returned from the Temple to check for stragglers.”

Cody sighs in relief, and then regrets it, wincing. No sudden movements for a while.

“Karking finally,” Cody says. “The younglings? The Temple?”

“Safe. Ghost and Torrent were able to pick off almost all the Guardsmen who made it to the Temple steps, and between Anakin and the rest, they handily knocked out the remainder.”

“What about the rest of Moonset? Any casualties?”

“Moonset finished today,” Obi-Wan says. “A few troopers have had minor aftereffects from surgery, but I’m told it’s nothing bacta can’t fix. There were no fatalities from the blackout, although there have been some from dechipped forces who were still on the ground in droid-heavy locations before the ceasefire went out to the Separatist army. Some planets have refused to go along with the peace deal between the Republic and Dooku’s supporters, and I believe Grievous has declared himself altogether separate from the Separatists and gone off somewhere to lick his wounds. Bail is Acting Chancellor, and he signed the Clones’ Rights Act earlier today, so you all are free men, and the GAR is in the first stage of being disbanded as a standing army.”

He’s missed a lot. How strange, Cody thinks, to wake up with so much he hadn’t even let himself acknowledge was possible. The whole galaxy has shifted while he was asleep. He has some catching up to do.

Obi-Wan continues. “Vokara kept you in a Force-healing chamber for a day and then bacta for two. You’ve only been in a bed for the last eighteen hours or so.”

Cody raises an eyebrow, back on familiar ground. “You get any sleep in the last four days?”

Obi-Wan grimaces. “Enough,” he says, which means he’s been subsisting mostly on caf and stims. “There was too much to do. Vokara dosed me with something at one point, after the peace deal went through.”

“So, what, twelve hours total in four days?”

Obi-Wan lazily waves a hand. “Something like that.”

“You must’ve had time after the peace deal.”

Obi-Wan curls his fingers into Cody’s shift. “There was the bill to think about. Also—I was worried.”

Cody brushes a thumb along Obi-Wan’s cheekbone, above the line of his beard. “Like Flask said, I’m too stubborn to die, Obi-Wan,” Cody says.

“It is good to hear you call me that,” Obi-Wan says quietly, meeting his eyes.

It’s good to say it, Cody doesn’t say. “Will it get you to sleep more?” he asks instead.

“Oh, Commander. I could be convinced,” Obi-Wan says, grinning now.

Cody knows this game, so he keeps his expression studiously blank. “The trainers used to tell me I excelled in challenging circumstances.”

“How fortunate for both of us. I’m not sure anyone has called me a ‘challenging circumstance’ to my face before.”

Cody feels suspiciously light, now. “If you want, I can say it again. Also, are you taking some of my pain?”

Obi-Wan’s grin gentles into a smile. “A little,” he admits.

“Obi-Wan,” Cody chides, drawing away a bit. “You shouldn’t have to carry it.”

“Cody,” Obi-Wan replies, steady. “Be reasonable. If I can’t always be the one to spring the trap, you can’t always be the one to bear the consequences.”

And, well, Cody can’t argue with that, so he accepts the gift and tugs Obi-Wan back against him. “Must be the end of the world, if you’re the one telling me to be reasonable,” he says lightly.

“Don’t tell Flask,” Obi-Wan says. “He’ll have a heart attack.”

“I would never.”

“Also, just so you know,” Obi-Wan says, feigning thoughtfulness. That tone makes Cody instinctively brace himself for whatever’s coming. “I think Quinlan managed to seduce Fives somehow.”

Cody has a moment of vividly imagining the sheer inevitable chaos, and then decides he can’t bring himself to care. “Pretty sure that’s Rex’s problem and not mine,” Cody says.

Obi-Wan’s eyes crinkle at the corners. “Oh, yes,” he says. “I just wanted to warn you about the imminent galactic devastation. It seems we saved the galaxy only to watch it be destroyed. Wouldn’t want you to be caught unawares.”

“Thank you,” Cody says. “I appreciate that. Speaking of warnings: _Dooku?_ ”

Obi-Wan looks chagrined. “By the time it was certain, you were with Anakin on your way to the court.”

“And Skywalker didn’t know.”

Obi-Wan nods. “It was Senator Amidala’s decision not to tell him, as the lead diplomat in the negotiations and as your counsel.” He winces. “And as Anakin’s—wife.”

Cody can feel his own eyebrows fly up. “Wife?”

The whole GAR knew they were involved, but married? He’d thought the Jedi weren’t allowed that kind of formalized attachment.

Obi-Wan sighs, hearing the unspoken question. “Our duties to the Order must come before our personal affairs, though we are not forbidden from forming such relationships. But Anakin has never been very good at putting his feelings aside for his duty.” He turns his face into Cody’s shoulder. “I tried to teach him how to _think_ through those feelings, but I’m afraid I wasn’t especially successful, having never been very good at that myself.”

Obi-Wan knows duty as well as Cody does, but his method of thinking through his feelings tends to involve working himself into the ground in avoidance—which is fine right up until it isn’t. But that’s not what he needs to hear. “Little brothers are hard to control,” Cody says. “I would know.”

Obi-Wan snorts. “I suppose I ought to be grateful that I only have the one, and not two million.” 

Cody smiles. “They’re entertaining, at least. Did Rex get hurt any?”

“Rex is fine, although he took a hit to his leg trying to get to Thire. Fox made quite the scene about wanting to shoot Palpatine himself once he woke up from surgery.”

“I can sympathize,” Cody says.

Obi-Wan continues, serenely ignoring this. “And, while I know you’ve been fishing for a full debrief, I must tell you that you’ve now gotten all the information I can process at the moment.”

“I do want a full debrief, but it can wait,” Cody agrees. There’s just one thing he still needs to check. He takes a deep breath. “I want to go through the door. Now, if I can. I need to know that Palpatine didn’t leave anything in my head.”

Maybe Obi-Wan really has had too much influence on him, if he’s trusting a magical Jedi doorway over the medical scans. But it knew the first time when he’d felt nothing at all going through it, distracted by hauling Fives to safety, and the second when it burned him, and he didn’t go back to it after he woke up, and then Palpatine came to see him in his cell and tried to take his mind during the trial. Just because the chip is gone doesn’t mean there aren’t any traps waiting, and Cody isn’t Marshal Commander from a lack of healthy paranoia.

He wants to keep holding onto Obi-Wan, wants to stay at his side, but for that he needs to be more certain than the stars. 

“You’re still on bedrest,” Obi-Wan says, but it’s a halfhearted protest at most. “Flask will notice you’ve escaped and somehow sense that I’m complicit and then he’ll come sedate us both.”

“Obi-Wan,” Cody says. Saying it out loud still feels like the click of something sliding into place, every single time.

Obi-Wan looks at him softly. “All right. I’ll take you through the door, Cody.”

“Thank you,” Cody says, and pauses. “I’m not sure I can walk there on my own.”

“If I ask you to wait until you have enough strength to walk out of medbay, will you wait?”

Cody considers this. “Nah. Either you help me, or you watch me keel over every three steps until I get there.”

“Give yourself some credit,” Obi-Wan says mildly. “It’ll be every six steps, at least.”

Cody fixes him with a look, and Obi-Wan relents, extracting himself from the bed and helping Cody sit up to put an arm over his shoulders.

They encounter nobody on their slow, meandering way out of the medbay and down the halls. Cody is very sure it’s Obi-Wan’s doing, but he won’t complain about it if it spares his dignity a little bit. He’s already mostly leaning on Obi-Wan, who doesn’t once let on that he’s half-carrying a full-grown man while running on a distinct lack of sleep.

Jan’nai’s Door is just as unassuming now as it had been the first time. Cody breathes in, counts it out slowly.

“Ready?” Obi-Wan murmurs. “You don’t have to do this now. Truly.”

Cody looks at him sidelong, raising an eyebrow, and Obi-Wan huffs. “All right,” he says, and Cody pushes open the door.

Immediately, he’s bathed in a gentle light. It doesn’t burn at all—it feels like sitting in easy sunshine, or like the thrum of Obi-Wan’s lightsaber. It feels like the certainty of knowing you’re tethered even while your body floats weightless in space.

It feels like warmth, centered on Obi-Wan next to him, who downright glows with it. Cody might still be a little lightning-addled, but he could swear that in this place he can see some strange current in the air forming eddies and whirlpools around them, like it’s happy they’re there.

“How did the story end?” Cody asks. “Jan’nai and Lor-Akar? After Exar Kun killed Jan’nai.”

Obi-Wan smiles, amusement dancing in his eyes. “That depends on who you ask, although according to the rest of the poem, Exar Kun _didn’t_ kill Jan’nai, because Lor-Akar’s blade did not obey the Sith. They escaped, and disappeared together. Official records have it that they went missing towards the tail end of the Great Sith War, and were presumed dead. However, many scholars believe that they asked Grandmaster Nomi Sunrider to help them vanish from the historical record so Lor-Akar could reunite her people and Jan’nai could become the first Jedi Shadow, serving the Order in the post-war reconstruction, without being sanctioned by their respective people for their love.”

“The scholars of the Early Republic era also hypothesized that Lor-Akar was able to refuse Exar Kun’s offers of power due to her love for Jan’nai, although of course the timeline doesn't entirely match up. For a time, it was fashionable among academics to claim that the offers themselves were variations on other tests for heroes in the epic tradition—a test of the body, a test of the mind, and a test of the heart. Some think that Jan’nai and Lor-Akar are figures of legend who did not truly exist in history.”

He tilts his head. “However, I’m inclined to believe there were two historical figures named Jan’nai and Lor-Akar. Not only because the Jedi tend to trace the creation of the modern Jedi Shadows to Jan’nai, but also because Jan’nai’s Door has a maker’s mark.”

Cody has a feeling this is important, though he can’t place why yet. Something in the very air around them is laughing. “Where?”

Obi-Wan shuffles them over to the door, and presses a palm to the frame, forehead creasing for a moment in concentration.

Letters wash over the doorframe, cleanly carved into the white stone and lit up from whatever Obi-Wan did.

“‘No evil may enter, for two who loved in the face of death now stand here as protectors of the Light,’” Cody reads, and blinks.

Obi-Wan clears his throat into the humming silence. “I always thought it was very romantic.”

A million ridiculous thoughts fly through Cody’s head at once. He wants to listen to Obi-Wan talk about this stupid door for the rest of his karking life. He wants so many things, and maybe now he’s got a chance to have them.

“Obi-Wan,” Cody says, and then loses the thread. There’s so much he could say, and Obi-Wan already knows all of it.

“Cody,” Obi-Wan replies, and then: “Have you thought about what you’d like to do, now that the war is over?”

Maybe he doesn’t know all of it, after all. Cody looks at him fondly. “I go where you go, Obi-Wan,” he says. “If you’ll have me.”

“Bail signed the Clones’ Rights Act today. You’ll be a lawful citizen of the Republic. You could do anything you want,” Obi-Wan says.

He’s forever trying to give Cody choices without realizing that Cody’s already chosen. Without even registering the possibility that Cody had chosen ages and ages ago. He’d chosen Obi-Wan.

_ Jare’la jetii. _

“And if I’m doing what I want right now?” Cody asks, leaning further into Obi-Wan’s space and brushing a hand along the line of his jaw. “If I want to keep doing exactly this?”

Obi-Wan catches Cody’s hand and presses into it. “Cody,” he says thickly, and then gathers himself and casts an imperious glance around them. “Well, we could at least find better scenery.”

“I know a Jedi Master who might have a room that he hasn’t slept in for a few days,” Cody says. “I’m sure he won’t mind if we escape the medics there.”

“No, I don’t think he will,” Obi-Wan agrees, and closes the remaining distance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jetii – Jedi  
> jetiise – Jedi (plural)  
> dar’jetii – Sith  
> Ni su’cuyi, Obi-Wan. – I’m still alive, Obi-Wan  
> Ni nu’ba’slana gar. – I’m not leaving you  
> jare’la jetii – foolish Jedi

**Author's Note:**

> That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks for joining me on this wild ride. I’ve been blown away by the response to this story, and I dearly appreciate all of you. Special thanks to longsuffering betas [J](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tumblingintowells) and [M](https://productivity-is-irrelevant.tumblr.com/), and to [Adi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/book_people/pseuds/adiduck) for patiently listening to me go insane about this for weeks. And if you’re wondering whether Cody has a sick-ass lightning scar across his back… he does. For other pressing questions/yelling, [catch me on tumblr @keensers.](https://keensers.tumblr.com) Comments, as ever, are adored <3 
> 
> On a final, more serious note, if you (like me) have been living in the US during the unending parade of horrors that is 2020, I hope this fic has been as cathartic for you to read as it has been for me to write. The prequels were made for the Bush years. Likewise, while this is a fanfic and not intended as Great Art, it’s a fanfic that I am consciously writing for right now. I can’t tell any of you to do anything, but I can tell you what I believe, as a law student and as someone who works in politics, and that is this: Repair of a broken system is possible—if we fight for it. Refuse despair. Put love and good works into the world. Wear a mask. Take care of yourselves, take care of your comrades, and please, please, please vote in November (or earlier). And take heart; there are more of us than there are of them.


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